


Frozen Heart

by The_Sad_Hatter



Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: ASL in italics, Angst, Big Brother Clint Barton, Big Sister Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Bucky Barnes is a Mess, Bucky is pining, Deaf Clint Barton, Fluff, Multi, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Pining, Sam Wilson is a Gift, Sassy Tony Stark, She had no idea, Smut, Unrequited Crush, Wanda is your partner in crime, reader is oblivious, steve rogers is a sweetheart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-01-05 00:34:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18354950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Sad_Hatter/pseuds/The_Sad_Hatter
Summary: When Nick Fury finally catches Ex-Shield Agent known as Black Ice, The Thief with a Frozen Heart, he puts her where she belongs. With The Avengers.You’re not happy about that decision but you’re the only one who’s kicking up a fuss. Natasha and Clint are happy to have you back in their lives, Sam Wilson is a big fan, Tony Stark just wants you to keep your hands off his stuff and Steve finds out that not only do you have a connection but you were there for him when nobody else was.Bucky Barnes is one of the few people who doesn’t have a connection with you but he’d really really like one.





	1. Prologue

THE KALAHARI DESERT

 

The Kalahari desert was in Southern Africa so it was quite obviously hot. In fact it was 930 thousands square km of arid, sandy, scorching hell. Or at least it was supposed to be. Nick Fury used his one good eye to take in the perplexing scene in front of him. Smack bang in the middle of the sandy dunes was a military style base which according to their intel belonged to a black arms dealer and known human trafficker known as "The Scorpion".

 

Bad guys having secret bases was hardly unusual, however what was unusual was the fact that this base was covered in at least three inches of ice. Mercenaries who worked for The Scorpion were scattered around, guns raised and alarm on their faces. Fury paid them little attention, they weren't a threat seeing as they were frozen solid like creepy gun wielding statues.

 

His attention was focused on the battered remains of a tent in the very centre of the icy carnage. The tent was barely erect, the front panel frozen in place and giving him a clear view inside to the young woman lying on the frozen ground, two of his medical personnel checking her for signs of life.

 

They found what they were looking for and related the news to Fury with a sharp nod of affirmation. She was alive. Fury had known she would eventually make a mistake and now she had, he finally had her.

 

6 HOURS EARLIER 

 

Your head felt full and heavy, your eyes burned and the air around you was so hot you were suffocating. You forced yourself to drag your eyes open, taking in the scene around you. Sand? Tents? You knew what these things were but why they were here was confusing and you couldn’t seem to get your brain to work properly.

 

Something moved and you looked up, seeing it was a person coming towards you. You knew them, your brain was telling you they were familiar. Your brain was also screaming something else at you, something important but you couldn’t grasp it.

 

There was a deep gnawing sense in your gut, not a good feeling. You shifted in the seat and tried to move and that was when you realised you couldn’t.

 

You couldn’t move.

 

You felt something on your wrists, binding them together. Raw panic started to claw its way through you and you reacted instinctively, reaching down deep inside yourself for the part of you that you’d locked away. You needed to be free, bad things happened when you couldn’t move.

 

You remembered the blood and you didn’t want to remember that.

 

You let the primal power inside yourself out and froze the ropes binding you but it all went horribly wrong. You couldn’t reign it in, you couldn’t control it. The last thing you remembered was screaming.

 

 

9 DAYS LATER –  Avengers Compound, Up-state New York

 

You had a habit of waking up in unfamiliar places so you weren't too worried at first. It wasn't until you registered the steady beeping of a heart monitor that your brow furrowed in confusion. Your eyes flew open and you tried to sit up, immediately regretting it as the cuffs on either wrist snapped against the metal bed-frame, pulling you back down with a wince of pain.

 

Panic rippled through you but then a deep chuckle to your right had you turning to face your company, and a growl of displeasure ripped out of your throat as soon as you did. Still, the sight of him calmed your fears and you knew, even if you were cuffed you were safe.

 

"What the fuck Clint?" You spat out, your voice hoarse from disuse, your hands automatically twisting in the cuffs.

 

The blonde man sitting on a chair next to the hospital bed you were currently cuffed to smirked at you, unfolding himself ungracefully from the uncomfortable looking plastic chair and leaning over to offer you a cup of water.

 

You glared at him as he raised it to your lips, tilting it to allow the cool liquid to pour down your throat. The sensation was most welcome, you had no idea how you’d become so thirsty.

 

Then it hit you, you had no idea how you’d ended up in hospital at all. A quick glance around the room offered no answers. It looked like a standard, albeit well funded hospital room. The blinds were closed, there were no glass panels on the door to look out of and you and Clint were the only ones in the room.

 

Panic and uncertainty started to claw at your gut and you looked up at Clint, your expression blank and controlled but he saw the fear and vulnerability in your eyes. He could always see right through you.

 

“What happened to me?” To anyone else it would have sounded like a demand but Clint knew you well enough to hear the plea in your voice.

 

You pulled at the cuffs again and huffed in annoyance. Clint smirked and tapped his ear to let you know he could hear you, you didn’t have to sign.

 

“What’s the last thing you remember?” He asked you gently.

 

You frowned, trying to pull up your memories and Clint watched the emotions flit across your face, confusion, pain and then horror.

 

“Motherfucker.” You whispered.

 

“That about sums it up... Miss Daniels this time are we?” A deep voice spoke and the door sprung open as Nick Fury walked into the room.

 

Your expression hardened instantly and Clint's turned apologetic. Fury noted that, the way he noted everything. He glared down at you, trying to intimidate you.

 

“You froze a 2 mile radius in the desert, killing everyone there instantly. When we found you you were nearly dead yourself. Lucky for you, we patched you back up and covered up your little mess.” Fury stated.

 

There was a long pause as he waited for you to say something but you didn’t.

 

“What, you’re not even going to say thank you?” Fury enquired sarcastically.

 

“Saying thank you could be taken as an admission of guilt, so no.” You rebutted.

 

Fury turned to look at Clint who sighed heavily.

 

“It’s over, you were found in the middle of the scene. We know you’re responsible.” Clint told you.

 

“We even have a good idea as to why you did it.” Fury informed you and he didn’t miss the way your jaw clenched in response.

 

“One of the bodies we found on site was First Lieutenant Charles Braxton, your commanding officer. The man who trained you for the past two years and fast tracked you to his special black ops task force. Decorated war hero, husband, father and best friend to Senator Jim Grant. Oh and he was also the criminal known as The Scorpion.” Fury said.

 

You took in a deep shuddering breath before you spoke, keeping your voice as even as possible.

 

“If you already know what happened, why bother asking me? What’s your play here Fury?”

 

“I’m asking because I don’t know what happened but I’ll tell you my theory. You found out Braxton was The Scorpion and he drugged you, kidnapped you and took you to his base. He probably thought he could turn you to his side. He had no idea who you really were though because you would never trust anybody enough to tell them what you were capable of. So when you woke up tied to a chair in the middle of the desert, having just been betrayed and attacked by your supposed mentor and friend you reacting instinctively and tried to freeze the ropes binding you enough to snap them and free yourself. You didn’t account for the drugs in your system or the adrenaline or the emotional turmoil you were facing though because you have always hidden your abilities away rather than learn to use them and instead of freeing yourself you lost control and created a cold snap in the Kalahari that killed everyone around you. How’d I do Miss _Daniels_?”

 

“That’s not a theory, that’s exactly what happened and you know it. But you’ve got a second theory lined up where I’m the villain right? Either you rescued a powerful asset or you took down a threat.” You laughed but there was no humour in it.

 

You knew what was going on. Fury had told you this day was coming and deep down you had always known he was right.

 

“You’re damn right I do. You killed a lot of people and even if I wanted to I can’t ignore that. I can bring you into the fold and protect you or I can lock you up and throw away the key. Those are the only two choices here. Now I made no secret about wanting you to re-join Shield but last time I asked you told me in no uncertain terms where I could shove that offer. I’m hoping you’ll be smarter this time now that SHIELD isn’t around. So what’s it going to be Miss Daniels, are you finally ready to become an Avenger or are you going to spend the rest of your life in a 4×4 cell?” Fury asked.

 

You whistled lowly.

 

“Alright Shaft, I’ll admit it. I was not expecting that.” You said, eyebrows practically disappearing into your hairline.

 

It was worded like a choice but all three of you knew it wasn’t, not really.

 

Clint knew you were stubborn and liked to dig your heels in but even you wouldn’t choose life imprisonment just to be spiteful. Fury knew it as well. You looked up at Clint and he braced himself for the anger about to be hurled his way but it never came.

 

You wanted to be angry at him but you knew it wasn’t fair. He hadn’t done this to you, you had done it to yourself. You had locked your abilities away, pretending you were nothing more than human and it had led to you losing control.

 

Now you had backed yourself into a corner and the only way out was through Fury, whether it be as an Avenger or a prisoner.

 

“IF I agree to this ridiculous proposal, I want my record wiped. My real record.” You told him.

 

“You’re in an awfully precarious position to be making demands. You don’t want to go to prison, If I don’t agree to your terms are you really going to refuse to join The Avengers?” Fury asked you.

 

You met his eyes and he saw it, you didn’t believe he was going to pass up the opportunity to recruit you but if he called your bluff there was no way you would back down.

 

He couldn’t comprehend why you were so stubborn but he didn’t have to, he just had to accept it. He nodded his assent and you and Clint both let out a small sigh of relief.

 

“Welcome to Shield Miss Daniels, Agent Barton here will explain the situation to you regarding the events in the Kalahari Desert and as soon as you’re medically cleared you’ll be introduced to the team who will oversee your official training.” Fury spoke in a crisp and authoritative tone before making his way to the door.

 

He had gotten what he came for, he wasn’t going to stick around any longer but you spoke up before he could make his exit.

 

“20 bucks says you regret this before we even reach the end of the month.” You called challengingly.

 

“I’ll take that bet.” He said without even looking back, letting the door close behind him.

 

Clint shook his head at you.

 

“It’s impressive how well he can glare at you with just one eye. Wonder how scary he was when he had both.” You snarked.

 

“It’s the one eye that makes the glare so effective. And you’ve been unconscious for nine days. The end of the month is tomorrow.” He dead-panned.

 

You swore and tried to sit up, forgetting about the cuffs and swore again as you were yanked back down. Clint made a strangled noise as he tried not to laugh. He reached over and pushed down on the cuffs, they were pressure locked and didn’t need a key so they popped open quickly and you held your wrists to your chest and rubbed them.

 

“Nine days?” You asked, confused.

 

“You were extremely dehydrated and had mild hypothermia. Add that to the drugs Braxton used on you and well… you weren’t in great shape when we found you.” He explained.

 

There was an edge to his voice, he was holding something back and whatever it was was bothering him. You reached your hand out, palm to the ceiling and waited. He sighed and put his hand in yours

 

“You get yourself into some stupid shit kid, and she’s not happy about it.” He whispered with an apologetic look on his face.

 

You shot up in the bed, alarm on your face.

 

“No no no no no, tell me she doesn’t know!” You begged.

 

Clint swallowed thickly.

 

“Fury said he’d tell her when you woke up.” Clint said, getting off the bed and backing into the corner of the room furthest from the door.

 

You went pale as you glanced franticly around the room like a deer caught in a trap but there was nowhere to hide and you knew it.

 

“Traitor!” you hissed at Clint as the door swung open and you swallowed heavily before turning to face your fear.

 

Clint winced under his breath at the expression on Natasha’s face and you felt like you’d been kicked in the chest as you laid eyes on her for the first time in years.

 

There was nothing you could say in that moment, no way to ask for forgiveness so you just reached out you hand to her, silently begging for something you didn’t deserve. She didn’t hesitate to take it, squeezing your hand reassuringly. And then continuing to squeeze.

 

“Ow, ow, ow. UNCLE!” You shrieked.

 

“As soon as your better, we’re playing 60 seconds.” Natasha said with a wicked glint in her eye.

 

“If you’re so mad, why are you here?” You sighed.

 

“I came to check on Clint. I would have come to check on you as well but we both know you can take care of yourself can’t you? You don’t need me.” She responded cooly.

 

Clint could feel the rising tension and he didn’t want a repeat of last time you and Natasha had been in the same room.

 

“You need rest, you start training as soon as you’re upright and we still need to take an official statement regarding the situation in the Kalahari.” He spoke over whatever biting remark you’d been about to shoot off at Natasha.

 

Natasha turned her annoyed look onto him, though it was legions softer than what she had directed at you.

 

“I have to convince the team to actually take her. Just because it’s what Fury wants, doesn’t mean Cap or Tony will be on board.” Natasha said, releasing your hand.

 

“What are you going to tell them about me?” You asked her.

 

“For once, the truth.” She informed you.

 

Clint nodded at her and she turned to leave while you studiously kept your face turned away from the door. Neither you or Natasha could see each other expressions but from his position at your bedside he could see it all, the brief moment of regret and longing you both had before you schooled your expressions expressions.

 

Clint sighed heavily and wondered what he’d done in a past life that was so bad he deserved to be connected to two such stubborn people. It was only when the door clicked closed you allowed yourself to drop the anger and look at him.

 

“How bad is it going to be?” You asked nervously and Clint chuckled at your reaction.

 

“They’re going to eat you alive.” He reassured you.

 

Tomorrow he would break the news to you that officially Agent Daniels had died in the Kalahari. But that could damn well wait because Clint had missed you, only to get you back in a near death state.

 

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

 

“Stark, didn’t you get hit by that ice thief a few years ago?” Natasha asked as she walked into the meeting room.

 

“Four years ago, she broke into the tower and stole an Iron Suit Prototype and left an ice sculpture replica in it’s place.” Tony said with a sour look on his face.

 

“Yeah, but didn’t she put the suit back the next day? It was on the news.” Sam pointed out.

 

“Not the point Wilson. She did it to piss me off.” Tony snapped.

 

“I think it worked.” Wanda coughed.

 

“Why are you bringing up old wounds Romanov? Nobody’s seen Black Ice for years.” Tony asked exasperatedly.

 

“Nobody ever saw her, that’s why they called her Black Ice...” Sam added.

 

“She’s in your medbay.” Natasha said with a smirk.

 

There was silence.

 

“The new recruit Fury dropped on my doorstep is the thief who taunted me? And I saved her life?” Tony shrieked.

 

“Cho saved her life, you just paid Cho to do it.” Sam sniggered, sending Wanda devolving into a fit of giggles.

 

“Well I’m going to be the one to kill her!” Tony insisted.

 

“Barton might be a little upset if you do that.” Natasha informed him.

 

Tony squinted suspiciously at her.

 

“Why?” Steve was the one to ask.

 

“Black Ice is a former Shield Agent and yes Tony... Fury, Barton and I knew it was her who stole your suit. She dropped off the radar three years ago, faked her own death after an incident in Moscow. Clint just got her back, he might be annoyed if you go and kill her.”

 

“You knew?!” Tony was incensed.

 

“You’re friends with Black Ice?”Wanda asked excitedly.

 

“Who do you think gave her the name?” Natasha asked her.

 

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

 

The next morning you were all but tossed out of the hospital bed by Clint who flung a change of clothes at you and told you the bad news.

 

You didn’t have any close friends, actually any friends at all to mourn your “death” but you still allowed yourself a moment of sadness for the life you were leaving behind. You were shaken out of your moment by a knock on the door and you looked up to see a Natasha stood in front of you.

 

There was no readable emotion on her face, no indication as to whether she was here to hug you or to kill you. Though that question was quickly answered as with an almost unnoticeable flick of her wrist Natasha sent a knife flying straight at your face.

 

You whipped your head back just in time, though you were still a fraction of a second too slow and the blade left a slight nick across your left cheek before embedding itself in the wall behind where your head had previously been.

 

“Reaction time is a little slow but not terrible. You haven't been keeping up with your training. Keep the knife, consider it gift” Natasha told you with a smirk.

 

You glared at Natasha with wide eyes as she turned and sauntered away.

 

“Oh and welcome back to the land of the living сестренка.” Natasha called over her shoulder.

 

You scowled as you signed the medical discharge papers, almost signing Daniels out of habit. It would take some getting used to being a Barton again.


	2. Sixty Seconds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Massive Shoutout to UnitedKingdomOrgy for holding my hand and walking me through how to address deafness properly! I hope I did ok with it beans, kick my ass if I didn't!
> 
> Anything in italics is being signed, not said out loud.

The room Clint had led you to was less of a room and more of a luxury suite. It was decadent and as soon as you opened the door and shoved you through it your jaw dropped.

 

“I’ll put coffee on.” Clint scoffed cheerily at you and left without waiting for a response, closing the door and leaving you in solitude.

 

You immediatley stalked towards the private bathroom attached to what was now your room, ripping off the clothes Clint had supplied and discarding them as you went. The shower alone was at least four times bigger than your previous bathroom.

 

You switched the shower on turning the dial up as high as it would go and it didn’t take long for steam to fill the bathroom. The Irony of an ice powered mutant taking a blistering hot shower wasn’t lost on you as you fiddled with all the dials. There was also a drug stores worth of soaps, shower gels, and hair products. Though you doubted any drug store carried these expensive sounding brands.

 

You spent at least twenty minutes just choosing a shower gel. Eventually you dragged your sweet smelling body out of heaven on earth and wrapped a cloud (it was probably a towel but it felt like a cloud) around yourself and padded into the bedroom.

 

You forced yourself to ignore the humongous soft looking bed that was piled high with pillows and realised you'd have to put Clint's clothes back on. Unless....

 

This was it, the big moment. If you opened the wardrobe and it was empty then all hope was lost. But if there clothes in there, clothes in your size and preferred style then maybe Natasha still loved you.

 

You took a deep breath and swung the doors open.

 

There was a cheesy pop song playing in your head ten minutes later as you strutted down the hallway, the black heels clicking against the floor. You smoothed your hands over your hips, smoothing invisible creases out of the tight black top and smirked. Tasha still loved you.

 

“Black Ice!” Someone called and you twirled round to wave at them.

 

“Falcon right?” You said, smiling at man jogging down the corridor towards you.

 

“Sam Wilson.” He said holding out his hand for you to shake.

 

Sam Wilson was gorgeous, nobody could try and dispute that. His most striking feature though was his eyes and the kindness shining in them. As soon as you looked into them you found yourself wanting to pour your heart out to him and make him your friend.

 

“Everybody kinda just calls me Ice.” You told him, shaking his hand.

 

“Cause of the powers right? I never would have guessed it was a power, I just thought the Ice you left behind was like a calling card or political statement.” He gushed.

 

You noticed the tips of his ears turning red as you blinked at him in surprise.

 

“Can I see them?” He asked you.

 

You looked around nervously, not used to this kind of openness about your powers.

 

“No.” You said, gulping nervously.

He didn’t seem at all put off by your attitude and instead got a conspiratorial look on his face, grabbing you by the arm gently as he pulled you down the hallway and through a door. You looked around the room he’d dragged you into and frowned, it was some sort of maintenance room. Dark, empty, filled with pipes and very very small.

 

You wrenched your arm away from him and he raised his eyebrows at you, looking taken aback before holding his hands up in surrender.

 

“Alright, I understand. No touching, that wasn’t cool of me. I’m sorry.” His tone was gentle and sincere.

 

“Uh, it’s ok. It’s just we’ve only just met and I’m not that kind of girl.” You smiled as you said it, covering your nerves.

 

You weren’t getting creepy vibes of this guy and didn’t really think he’d pulled you into an empty room for nefarious purposes. You was more curious than anything.

 

“I’ll buy you dinner next time. I just thought you’d be more inclined to show me your frosty side if nobody was spying.” He prodded with a laugh.

 

“My power takes a lot of emotional and physical control. Granted I'm not drugged up and being held captive in the desert at the moment but do you really want to risk it?” You asked.

 

“I didn’t know that’s what happened, I’m really sorry.”He looked crestfallen as he apologised.

 

“It’s not your fault.”

 

“Or yours. I didn’t know, I won’t ask again. And just so you know, I’m good with this sort of thing if you need to talk about it. If you don’t, I’m also great at making omelette's.” He told you with a toothy grin.

 

“I’m really good at eating them.” You said, smiling back at the man you were quickly betting was going to be a friend.

 

“Well then milady, might I escort you to the kitchen?” He said, opening the door with a dramatic flourish and bowing as you passed.

 

You laughed at his antics and shook your head fondly, accepting the offer of his arm as he walked you to the kitchen. Where Clint and Natasha were waiting.

 

“Wilson, hands off my sister!” Clint snapped.

 

“Your sister?” Sam shrieked, looking between you and Clint, squinting.

 

“She’s not really my sister, somebody dropped her off at the circus in a basket and I just kept her.”

 

“Stop telling people that, it’s not any better than the truth. We found her on a job, we killed her parents and decided to raise her to make up for it.” Natasha said.

 

“They’re both lying. It’s nowhere near that interesting, Clint saved me from a fire when I was a baby. That’s why his face looks like that.” You said.

 

Sam’s eyes flicked down to your hands but didn’t say anything about you signing as you spoke.

 

“So, she’s your sister but not?” Sam clarified.

 

“She’s my sister. Doesn’t matter how she got that way.” Clint said resolutely, making it clear it was a closed topic.

 

“ _See, I knew you loved me.” You teased Clint._

 

“ _No I don’t, I just don’t share my toys.”_

 

“Ok, looks like we have another bird in the nest!” Sam said excitedly.

 

“She’s not a bird, she’s a snake.” Natasha said, glaring at you.

 

“Damn, that was cold even for a Russian!” You responded with a faux hurt expression.

 

“Vy dolzhny uskol'znut' ot malen'koy zmei.” (Slither away little snake.)

 

“Natasha, I still don’t speak Russian. And snakes eat spiders so...” You smirked.

 

“ _Run.”Clint warned._

 

Natasha narrowed her eyes at you and smirked.

 

“Gym in one hour. We’re playing 60 seconds.” She told you and walked away.

 

You winced and watched her leave.

 

“What’s 60 seconds?” Sam asked Clint.

 

You and Natasha were both stubborn, something you had realised a long time ago. Your arguments used to be legendary and never ending until you figured out a system. It was a system most people saw as barbaric or psychotic. You and Tasha preferred to look at it as cathartic.

 

Sixty seconds, no holds barred. The wronged party could hurt the wrongdoer however they saw fit, no retribution. It was how you settled all grievances.

 

It was painful, but worth it. Honestly, it was a system that worked for you both and you were glad she was using it.

 

You broke out of your reverie when Clint waved a hand in front of your face.

 

“ _Look alive, Cap’s coming.” He smirked._

 

You brightened up considerably, you were looking forward to seeing Captain Rogers again. You spun round with a bright smile on your face as he walked into the kitchen. He held his hand out formally.

 

“Ma'am, welcome to The Avengers compound. I’m Steve Rogers.” He said politely.

 

Admittedly it had been a long time since a woman had looked so offended by his presence but the expression on your face was still painfully familiar.

 

“Gee, you defrost a guy and he acts like you’ve never met.” You huffed angrily, your hands flying about as your frustration came out through your gestures..

 

“Defrost?” Steve repeated, puzzled.

 

Clint sniggered and you narrowed your eyes at his shit eating grin and Steve’s confused expression.

 

“Nobody told him? You bastard! That was literally the coolest thing I have ever done and nobody told him? No wonder he never wrote, never called.” You whined petulantly.

 

“I’m not following.” Steve said with a frown.

 

“Me either.” Sam added from his post at the cooker.

 

You were reigning in the impulse to stamp your foot when Sam gasped and pointed at you with a spatula.

 

“Ice! He was in the ice. You didn’t?” Sam asked.

 

“Yeah, I did. What, you think Shield find a man in Ice and don’t ask their Ice powered agent to help out?” You said sulkily.

 

“Wait, you defrosted me when I came out of the Ice?” Steve clarified.

 

“Well I had to. If you melted too quickly you could have gone into shock. I had to keep you frozen for days and do it gradually.” You told him.

 

He was gob smacked. Nobody had ever told him that a person had done it or that it had taken days.

 

“Thank you.” He said sincerely.

 

“You are very welcome. You however are the worst brother in the world.” You snapped at Clint.

 

“Brother?” Steve pressed, back to shocked.

 

“Adopted, I bought her off a Serbian fella years ago and couldn’t return her.” Clint said.

 

After breakfast Clint dragged you around the compound, pointing out important rooms. Or rooms he deemed important.

 

“ _That’s the smaller TV room but the sofa is comfier and it’s usually empty.” He informed you._

 

Old habits died hard and despite the fact he could hear you fine with his hearing aids in he slipped back into signing, feeling better communicating with you the old fashioned way. When you were younger you’d delighted in having your own secret way of communicating with Natasha and Clint and now you knew why he signed but it still felt more natural to talk this way.

 

The compound was sleek, modern and airy and very Stark. Speaking of...

 

“ _Where’s Stark? Locking down his valuables?” You asked, sniggering._

 

“ _Didn’t have the heart to tell him that wouldn’t stop you.” He smirked._

 

“ _Ok, it’s been an hour. Take me to my executioner.” You said with a solemn expression._

 

He chuckled and slung his arm around your shoulders, steering you towards the gym.

 

The Gym as it turned out was MASSIVE. At least twice the size of a football field, one side was filled with state of the art gym equipment and instead of 4 walls there were 3 wall and a row to floor to ceiling windows that overlooked an outdoor running track and obstacle course. The other half of the room was covered in training mats, clearly meant for sparring.

 

That was where Natasha was stood, casually waiting for you. Clint squeezed your shoulder and pushed you towards her. You took a deep breath and stepped onto the mats. You could do this, it was only a minute. You could survive it.

 

But Natasha Romanov was a cruel cruel woman.

 

Fifty one minutes later yoy hit the floor, sweat dripping down  your forehead. Every muscle  you  had burned and even ones  you didn’t know  you had were screaming in protest. 

 

Tasha, lovely kind woman that she was had informed you she was doing a physical evaluation before she cleaned the slate  by using her sixty seconds . 

 

You ’d been here less than an hour and  she hadn’t even touched  you ye t but you  w ere already thoroughly exhausted.  The Russian B...eauty was currently testing  your  core strength by having  you use the salmon ladde r. 

 

O ne handed. 

 

You ’d yet to reach the top, having met the floor with force at least seven times by now. Clint was absolutely no help, as soon as Natasha had instructed  you to get to work he’d perched himself on top of a balance beam and proceeded to heckle  you . His laughter echoed through the room as  you  pushed herself up from the ground, face burning in embarrassment. 

 

“Weren’t you in the Army the last two years?” He called down in mirth. 

 

You flipped him off but it only made him laugh harder. 

 

Natasha kicked  your left leg and  you went down ungracefully,  your knee slamming into the floor. 

 

“You’re here so I can get a better understanding of your capabilities, not to trade barbs with birdbrain over there.” Natasha told you coldly. 

 

“Hey I resent that.” Clint called out.

 

Natasha turned her stare on him and he grumbled to himself and got up and wandered away to the target practice area of the room. Natasha turned back to  you and you gritted  your teeth against the pain and nodded, getting to  you r feet and picking up the metal bar  you were using to pull  your self up the ladder. 

 

“Use the left hand this time.” Natasha ordered. 

 

You sighed and did as  you were told, making the mistake of glancing towards Clint to make sure he wasn’t up to anything.  You w ere too caught up in the panel of the wall Clint had just opened to make it onto the ladder and fell again, landing on  your feet this time but barely paying attention.

 

There was an armoury in the wall and  you r eyes were lit up like a kid at Christmas. Natasha cocked her head at  your reaction and smirked. 

 

“Ok, lets test your gun knowledge out.” Natasha said.

 

You didn’t wait for her to finish the sentence and were already scampering toward the guns. Clint looked up at the sound of your footsteps and the corner of his mouth tugged up at the look on your face.

 

You weren’t looking at him, your eyes were on the weapons, more specifically on the glock 12 on the table next to him. You picked it up and with practised ease popped the magazine out and checked it before popping it back in. He and Natasha shared an amused look as you strode over to the targets, standing at the furthest point from them and steadily raised the gun in your right hand and fired off 12 shots in rapid succession. Clint let out a low whistle as he looked at all 12 targets that now had a bullet hole in the dead centre of the target.

 

“Nat she can shoot! Like really shoot!” He whispered excitedly.

 

Your aim had always been pretty good but you were no Hawkeye, however in the last two years you had given up trying to match his skill with a bow and to your surprise found that your skill lay with guns. You had only a little amount of control of your abilities and halfway decent fighting skills but you knew your way around a gun.

 

They were your happy place, the feel of cold heavy metal in your hand, your mind blissfully clear of anything except the target.

 

You switched the gun to your left hand and repeated the 12 shots, hitting the bullseye again every time. You popped a fresh clip into the gun, intending to empty that as well when something whizzed by your head and buried itself into the dead centre of a target.

 

You turned to look at Clint and Natasha. Natasha was looking on with a blank face but Clint was holding a bow and staring back at you and the challenge was clear. You met his eyes and raised the gun, pulling the trigger on your next exhale, keeping your gaze locked on his. You didn’t have to look to know that you had hit the target.

 

Clint let out a low whistle of approval but Natasha’s face remained impassive.

 

“Good, what time you’ll save on weapons training you can put into combat practice.” Natasha decided.

 

You scowled but dutifully followed the lethal task mistress back to the bars, scowling over your shoulder at a chuckling Clint.

 

Bucky knew there was someone new in the compound, some former thief who Steve had rushed into tell him about after breakfast. Apparently she was Barton’s younger sister and she had helped Steve when they pulled him out of the arctic. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he saw her but it wasn’t that.

 

He happened to look through the windows of the gym and nearly tripped over his own feet at the sight of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He was a hundred years old, he’d seen more than his share of dames but not one of them held a candle to the girl in the gym. The one with killer aim. He watched her effortlessly fire off the shots, hitting the targets with minimal effort and it was mesmerizing.

 

When she fired a bullet straight through Barton's arrow without looking all the blood rushed from Bucky’s head because it was without a doubt the sexiest thing he had ever seen. He had never even met the girl but right then and there he decided she was his soulmate.

 

 

 

“Well you are in terrible shape. I don’t know what they had you doing in the army but it wasn’t good enough. Thankfully you still have your instinct for combat and some strength. An intense training regime should have you in shape in a few week.” Natasha told you as you lay panting on the floor.

 

Clint wandered over and nudged you with his foot and you were too tired to stop him.

 

“ _Kill me.” You begged._

 

“ _Did that once, not doing it again.”_

 

You frowned at his response. He was slightly upside down from this angle but that didn’t do much to hide the pain in his eyes. When Clint had helped you fake your death he hadn’t had much of a choice. Neither of you had. As much as you had missed him you suspected he missed his baby sister more. You wanted to tell him you were glad to be back with him, that you didn’t want to leave again.

 

“ _Sappy is a bad look on you.” You told him._

 

“ _Bleeding is about to be a good look on you.” He responded._

 

There, now he knew. Thank god for sibling short hand and reading between the lines. He pulled you to your feet and nodded at you.

 

“Start the clock.” Natasha instructed.

 

“3...2...1...GO!”

 

You steeled yourself as she advanced and shut your eyes like the brave woman you were. Her arms wrapped around you and you were pulled into a hug. Your eyes shot open and you shot a helplessly terrified look at you brother.

 

“Don’t do it again. We missed you too much.” Natasha whispered in your ear and released you.

 

“Tasha, I missed you so much. Every day.” You admitted, tearing up.

 

“Good.” She said.

 

And then she roundhouse kicked you in the face.

 

 

You winced and pressed an ice pack to your face as you grabbed a bowl of pasta from the buffet style spread in the kitchen. Apparently team dinners were a thing and there was one especially for you tonight. You leaned over the counter to grab a slice of cheesecake from the back of the table that looked slightly larger than the other slices. You put it next to your pasta and frowned, you could have sworn you chose pasta but there was now a sad looking plate of chicken breast and broccoli looking up at you.

 

“Part of getting you into shape is changing your diet.”

 

You whirled round to face Natasha who had an annoying smirk on her face as she plucked the cheesecake away from you.

 

Natasha kept her smirk as she walked away with the desert and sat at a table next to Clint, pushing an empty chair out with her foot and looking at you expectantly. You gave in and went to sit down, but not before throwing a dirty look at the offending chicken and vegetables.

 

“Hey Ice.” Sam greeted you as you sat down.

 

You just frowned grumpily at your table-mates and stabbed at her dinner. Natasha looked smug as she tucked into the cheesecake.

 

“What happened to your face?” Sam asked you in concern.

 

“60 seconds.” You, Clint and Natasha said in unison.

 

Sam looked terrified and rapidly changed the subject.

 

“Steve’s bringing Barnes down.” He said with a grimace.

 

“Friend of yours?” You smirked, wincing when it hurt your face.

 

“Arch nemesis. He’s the worst, you’ll hate him.” Sam assured you.

 

“Tony is coming down with Bruce. Brace yourself.” Clint told you.

 

“Hey, it’s not my fault his security is abysmal.” You defended yourself.

 

“Excuse me? Who is this stray child who has wandered into my home to eat my food and insult me?” Someone behind you demanded.

 

You turned around and looked at the infamous Tony Stark. He was dripping about as much ego and irritation as you expected while a timid and exhausted looking man stood behind him.

 

“Wow, it’s actually you!” You exclaimed, getting up and rushing past Tony to offer your hand to the one and only Bruce Banner.

 

“Oh hello. I’ve been told to just call you Ice. I’m Bruce banner but I guess you probably knew that.” Bruce said nervously buy politely.

 

“It’s an honour Dr Banner, I’m such a huge fan.” You admitted.

 

“Oh, you’re into science?” He asked, his eyes lighting up.

 

Natasha and Clint snorted behind you.

 

“Yes... and no. I like it, I’m just not very good at it. I think you are amazing, your brain is just so much better than mine. Like so much.” You stammered.

 

“Should we rescue her?” Sam whispered.

 

“Oh hell no, this is fun!” Tony insisted.

 

There was a slight chance that you were a little bit of a science nerd. Minus the nerd part. See you loved science, everything from the human brain to the stars and the fact that they were connected. It was all fascinating to you but you sadly lacked the genius gene.

 

“Your enthusiasm is wonderful, passion is 90% of science.” Bruce said nicely.

 

You noticed you were still shaking his hand and pulled away, blushing.

 

“No, no it’s not.” You said sadly.

 

He looked bad for you as you sat back down.

 

“I’m working on a biochemical sample from a rather fascinating species of Jellyfish at the moment. Perhaps tomorrow If you come by the lab I can show you?” He suggested and you sat up a little straighter.

 

“Careful Bruce, she might steal it.” Tony warned.

 

“Bruh, I stole an Iron Suit, big deal. That sculpture I left took me ages to make, don’t I get any credit?” You asked.

 

“No. None. I don’t like you.” Tony said, wagging his finger at you.

 

“Didn’t you end up redesigning the entire security system and making it even better?” Bruce asked him.

 

“Not the point Brucey, she’s a little street rat.” Tony scowled.

 

“I guess that makes you the magic carpet.” You pointed out and he scowled harder.

 

“Mr Stark I am sorry. I was young and foolish, I’ll never do it again.” You swore.

 

Tony’s eyes followed your hands as you signed your words, fork in hand.

 

“Do what again?” Steve asked before Tony could put his foot in his mouth.

 

You turned around to greet The Captain and promptly had the breath knocked from your lungs.

 

The dark haired smouldering man next to him was undoubtedly the most intimidating man you had ever seen. From the metal arm to the bulging muscles to the steely eyes and that perfect jawline. This was Bucky Barnes, The Winter Soldier. Barnes, Sams nemesis.

 

“I’m Sam’s friend.” You blurted out for lack of an actual coherent thought.

 

Steve looked between you and Sam with amusement but your eyes were still locked onto Bucky who finally looked up at you.

 

What little braincells you still had wandered away, skipping into the sunset and abandoning you. Bucky’s eyes were like steel traps and you were completely stuck in them. So stuck you didn’t see Steve nudge him.

 

“Hi.” Bucky said to you in a hoarse, raspy voice.

 

You may or may not have squeaked and turned your back on him. Well you definitely did but in your defence your brain cells were gone.

 

Bucky turned around and walked back out.

 

“I’m not hungry. For food, This food. I’m actually tired. I’m going to go to bed.” You announced and fled.

 

“What the fuck was that?” You hissed at yourself.

 

What indeed. There was absolutely no good reason for you to have reacted to Bucky that way.

 

You had been in a coma for nine days, Natasha had kicked you in the face today. You were overwhelmed emotionally. These were all actually perfectly good reasons when you thought about it.

 

You just needed to get some sleep, recharge and maybe, hopefully regrow some of those traitorous braincells. In the morning, you would apologise to Bucky Barnes. You would look him in the eyes, his gorgeou...

 

You would look somewhere in his general vicinity and apologise. Satisfied with your plan you got ready to settle into the massive luxury bed that was now yours.

 

Unaware that a few halls down Bucky was reprimanding himself for blowing his chances with before he even got to meet you properly. He calmed himself down by convincing himself that you were just a pretty girl with good aim, it wasn’t a huge loss if he never got to spend time with you. In the morning he would just treat you like a team mate and forgot the fleeting silly crush he’d developed.

 

In the morning, everything would be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here it is, the first official chapter!! TaaaDaaaa! I really hope it was enjoyable for you guys and I would love to know what you thought, even (especially) if you didn't like it!


	3. Batman and Supergirl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As usual, everything in Italics is being signed, not said out loud.

You couldn’t move, your arms were packed close to your sides and there was no room. Your heart beat erratically in your chest as you swallowed your whimpers, trying desperately not to make a noise. Something dripped onto your face and ran down it, something warm and thick and metallic smelling. Another drop splashed down on you and you realised it was blood.

 

You were trapped and scared and nobody was coming to help you. You tried to scream but no noise came out, you couldn’t get the noise out. You heard someone yelling your name and tried to call for help but you couldn’t. The person calling you got louder and you were shaking uncontrollably. Your eyes snapped open and you gasped. You weren’t shaking, someone was shaking you.

 

As soon as you realised that, you realised you weren’t trapped it was just a dream. You sprang to your feet, pushing whoever woke you away. Your bare feet slapped across the wooden floor as you rushed to the window, pushing it open and letting the cool air wash over you as you tried to control your breathing.

 

You leant your forehead against the cold window pane and looked out at the view, drinking it in, letting it pull you out of the nightmare and back into reality.

 

“You good?” Clint’s gruff voice asked you.

 

You turned your head to look at him and your eyes answered for you. Clint felt like he’d been punched in the chest when he saw that haunted look in your eyes.

 

“You having that nightmare again? I thought it stopped?” He asked.

 

You shook your head and pushed your palms into your eyes, trying to push the tears back in.

 

“Ice, how long has this been going on?”

 

You shrugged and sluggishly dragged yourself across the room to sit on the bed.

 

“Since you left?” He pushed.

 

You looked up at him he tugged the his ear to make sure you understood.

 

“ _It doesn’t happen every night.” You told him._

 

“ _But it happens a lot? What about the rest of it?” He pressed._

 

“ _Yeah, a lot. Most days I’m ok but some days I can’t go use an elevator.”_

 

Clint sighed heavily and rubbed his head as he thought it over. He had thought you were past this.

 

“ _He tied me to the chair and I couldn’t move. I just lost it.”_

 

The Scorpion had tied you up and it was triggering old memories, making old phobias resurface. Clint groaned and threw himself backwards onto you bed, making you bounce.

 

“ _I’ll stay. Come on, get some sleep. Don’t argue. Tired. Sleep.”_

 

He hadn’t had to do this since you were a teenager but if it meant you felt safe there honestly wasn’t a lot he wouldn’t do and this was easy.. You curled into a ball at the end of the bed and drifted back to sleep. It never occurred to you to wonder how he had known you were having a nightmare if he didn’t have his hearing aids in.

 

You woke up ever so slightly a few minutes later as Natasha crept into the room and climbed onto the bed as well, kicking Clint out of the way so she could lie with her head next to yours. Her hair tickled your face but you didn’t brush it away, it was a happy reminder that you weren’t alone.

 

You slept deep and dreamless and when you woke up in the morning it was to be reminded of something.

 

Clint Barton was a fucking octopus. It was ridiculously adorable but not what you needed right now, what with the claustrophobia being a bit of a dick. You prised his arms off of your calf with some difficulty.

 

“I know you’re awake.” You hissed at Natasha.

 

Other than a minute upturn at the corner of her mouth she didn’t respond. You got Clint off of you and he rolled over in his sleep and quickly attached himself to Tasha instead. You snorted at the unintentional vengeance.

 

“Bring back coffee.” She ordered as you left the room.

 

You would, but you had another stop to make first.

 

Ten minutes later you gave the butterflies in your stomach a stern talking to as you knocked on Bucky’s door. There was some shuffling for a moment before he answered.

 

“I was unconscious for nine days and when I woke up I was made an Avenger against my will and then Natasha kicked me in the face really hard and I just kept meeting new people and I think my brain short circuited and that’s why I was so rude but I’m very sorry and I brought you coffee please don’t hate me.” You blurted out, only realising your lack of punctuation too late as you practically thrust the coffee cup towards Bucky.

 

Bucky had only just managed to convince himself that he wasn’t even that attracted to you anyway and now here you were, standing at his door with big pleading eyes and rumpled bed hair while you bit your bottom lip nervously.

 

He tried really hard to think of something to say. Anything. Just words in general.

 

“Thanks for defrosting Steve, he came in quite handy.” He finally said.

 

He wondered if he could program his arm to repeatedly punch him in the face but you laughed and he suddenly didn’t regret saying it any more.

 

He reached out and took the coffee cup from you and definitely didn’t sigh in disappointment when your fingers didn’t brush against his.

 

“Thank you.” He said, so softly you probably didn’t hear it as you smiled and waved goodbye as you walked backwards away from his door.

 

When Bucky shut his door you breathed a sigh of relied and did a fist pump in mid air before you remembered Stark had his AI watching you.

 

Straightening up you clasped your hands behind your back and casually walked back to your room.

 

“Where’s the coffee?” Natasha asked you with a death glare.

 

“Uhhh, I thought I would come and ask what you would like for breakfast.” You said, covering up the fact you had forgotten her coffee.

 

She narrowed her eyes at you and you knew she wasn’t buying it but you also knew she would pretend she was if it meant you made her breakfast.

 

“French Toast, the cinnamon one you make with the chocolate and berries.” She decided.

 

Something told you she had missed your cooking.

 

 

Halfway through making the breakfast you started to get irritated. This was the sixth time Tony Stark had casually walked past the kitchen door. You put the mixing bowl down ans tiptoed to the door.

 

Right on schedule he walked past and you made him jump.

 

“Morning.” You said cheerfully.

 

“Ice Queen.” He said, eyes narrowing at you.

 

“I’m making breakfast, if you’re hungry?” You asked him nicely.

 

“What’s your game? Why are you here?” He asked, crossing his arms and trying to intimidate you.

 

You sighed heavily and rolled your neck to loosen it up. You had tried to be nice, as far as you were concerned whatever happened next was on his head.

 

“Listen to me you over-hyped, flying Coca-Cola can. If I were here for nefarious purposes you’d never have seen me coming. I’m here because I woke up here and was told I had to join the Power Rangers.”

 

Stark didn’t look convinced at all.

 

“How come nobody knew about you then? Out of the blue Clint announces he has a sister, an adopted one but he won’t tell anyone where you came from. The only people who know you are the two spy’s and the person who dumped you on my doorstep was Fury. Who are you really?” He demanded.

 

“Fine. You want to know who I am?”

 

“Kinda why I asked.”

 

You dropped to bowl of egg batter on the counter with a clatter and took a deep breath. Stark perked up as you steeled yourself to tell him.”

 

“When I was a child, my planet, Krypton, was dying. I was sent to Earth to protect my cousin. But my pod got knocked off-course, and by the time I got here, my cousin had already grown up and become... Superman. And so, I hid my powers, until recently when an accident forced me to reveal myself to the world.” You told him seriously.

 

He went from intrigued to annoyed and scoffed as he glared at you, walking away.

 

“To most people, I am an assistant at CatCo Worldwide Media. But in secret, I work with my adoptive sister for the D.E.O. to protect my city from alien life and anyone else that means to cause it harm. I AM SUPERGIRL!” You yelled after his retreating figure.

 

“Morning Supergirl.”

 

You jumped at the voice and turned round to see Steve Rogers casually leaning against the fridge with a semi-amused semi-guilty expression.

 

“Jesus Cap, how did you even get in here without me noticing you?” You asked him, hand on your chest as you tried to stop you heart exploding out of it.

 

“I’m Batman.” He said simply and you snorted a laugh at his clever response.

 

“Well played.” You told him, going to retrieve your eggs and whisking them.

 

“Can I help?” He asked, looking around at all your ingredients with an air of curiosity.

 

“You can put those biceps to work and whisk this because I can’t feel my arm anymore.” You told him sheepishly.

 

Steve laughed and prised the bowl away from you.

 

“I was hoping to catch you this morning actually, I want to talk to you.” He said as he effortlessly whisked.

 

You almost didn’t hear him, you were mesmerized by his arms.

 

“I brought him coffee and apologised!” You quickly blurted out.

 

“What?”He asked, perplexed.

 

“What?”You were now also perplexed.

 

“You brought who coffee and apologised for what?”He followed up.

 

So presumably he didn’t want to talk about Barnes then.

 

“Nobody. What did you want to talk about?” You weren’t sure why you lied.

 

Alright it was because you were embarrassed. Apparently so was he as his cheeks went a little pink.

 

“I wanted to thank you. For being there for me when they pulled my from the Ice. If I had known I would have never left it this long before thanking you. I don’t want you to think I’m ungrateful.” He said, passing the bowl back to you.

 

“It was an honour, no really it was. I practically grew up on stories of you, especially whenever Coulson was babysitting. When Shield found you they didn’t even have to ask. Even if you weren’t a hero though, I wouldn’t have left you like that.” You informed him.

 

You were telling the truth. You knew who Steve Rogers was but when you saw him frozen he wasn’t Captain America to you anymore, he was just somebody you needed to help. Knowing he was alive in that Ice had broken your heart and you spent days without sleep to make sure he was alright as you melted the Ice around him.

 

“I still owe you a thank you.” He said seriously.

 

“Consider me thoroughly thanked.”You told him with a grin.

 

You noticed that wherever you moved around the kitchen as you cooked up a storm, he moved with you. He was making sure he was in your eyeline. It was kind of the same way you moved around Clint and your heart melted as you realised that the Captain was trying to make sure you could read his lips. It must be left over behaviour from when he was around Clint.

 

You passed the first plate of toast to him with a warm smile.

 

“Here, hope you enjoy it.” You told him.

 

He looked mildly surprised at how edible the Cinnamon French Toast with Strawberries, Raspberries and Warm Chocolate Sauce looked.

 

“So you can cook?” He said, sitting down with the plate and tucking in.

 

You didn't answer, you’d let his taste buds do that for him. As soon as he put the fork in his mouth he let a very sinful moan and you stifled a laugh. You may have also blushed because well... Steve Rogers, pornographic moans... Who wouldn’t blush at that?

 

“It’s good, really really good.” He praised you as he dove straight in for another bite.

 

“Between Clint and Tasha I had to learn how to cook or I’d have grown up on cereal and Pizza.” You told him as you pottered about, making Natasha’s breakfast.

 

“About that..” He started and you smirked.

 

“You want to know why you’ve never heard of me?”

 

“If you want to tell me?” He offered.

 

“Clint, Natasha and Fury faked my death. Clint never told you because what would be the point? As far as the world knew, Black Ice was dead. Plus they are spies. Keeping secrets is kind of their thing.” You scoffed.

 

“Why did they fake your death, why did you?”

 

“I wanted out. Out of Shield. I just couldn’t take it any more. I... lost someone.” You told him.

 

He put down his cutlery and gave you his full attention.

“I’m sorry.” He told you softly.

 

When people for apologised for your loss it never meant much. They weren’t sorry, they felt sorry for you. Steve was sincere though and you weren’t feeling the usual irritation you felt at those words.

 

“It was a long time ago. I guess I’m back in the game now, whether I want to be or not.” You said, covering the pain with a smile.

 

“Who did you lose?”

 

You weren’t going to tell him, you didn't like to talk about it at all but memories of stories about Peggy Carter flashed in your mind. Steve would understand.

 

“My fiancée. He was a Shield agent, like me. He died during a mission gone wrong.”

 

A love story that was ended before it had a chance to really begin. Steve knew how that felt. He knew that there wasn’t anything he could say that you would want to hear.

 

“I’m going to take Natasha’s her breakfast before she comes looking for me, probably with knives in hand.” You told him.

 

“Good idea. Hey, thanks for this. It’s delicious.” He said, shovelling more toast into his mouth.

 

“Anytime Captain.”

 

 

An hour later you’d finally managed to chase a well fed Tasha and Clint from your room so you could shower and get dressed. Clint had told you he wanted you to meet someone you’d missed meeting at diner last night after you fled so as soon as you were ready you went searching for him.

 

He was in the common room, talking to a young woman. You recognised her straight away from the News. Wanda Maximoff, The Scarlet Witch.

 

“Hello.” You greeted, poking your head into the room and waving.

 

“Ice, come here. I want you to meet Wanda.” Clint said, standing up and pulling you into the room.

 

He seemed flustered and nervous as he hovered beside the two of you. He must really want you to get along.

 

“So you’re the one who can read minds huh? Can you read mine?” You asked her, arching your brow.

 

She looked taken aback for a second before a smirk graced her features.

 

“It’s not difficult to do, especially with smaller less developed minds. Yours is very easy to see into.”

 

You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed.

 

“Are you calling me stupid? Did she just call me stupid?” You demanded, hands flying about angrily.

 

“Not stupid, just less developed.” She clarified.

 

“I’ll develop you into a damn ice statue in a second witch.” You hissed.

 

Clint looked stricken at the turn of events.

 

“What? No! Ice calm down. Wanda this is my sister, she’s very nice. Please be nice to her.” He pleaded quickly.

 

You couldn’t keep up the charade and neither could Wanda and you both dissolved into fits of giggles at the terrified and worried look on his face.

 

“Pleasure to meet you Wanda. I think you and I are going to get along just fine.” You sniggered.

 

“I think so too.” She said with a pleased grin.

 

“What just happened?” Clint demanded, confused and a little worried still.

 

“Ice hinted I should try to read her mind and when I did she told me to help her play a little trick on you.” Wanda told him with a laugh.

 

“Oh no.” Clint groaned.

 

“Oh yes.” You rebutted.

 

“No, the two of you combined are going to be the death of me.” He groaned.

 

“Care to join me outside? I’d love to see your powers in action.” You told Wanda, ignoring Clint’s semi breakdown and offering her your arm.

 

She linked her arm through your with an adorable giggle as she shot Clint an apologetic look and left the room with you.

 

“Yes, I’ll help you.” She told you before you even asked.

 

You had been about to tell her you were out of practice with your own abilities and ask her if she would mind helping you get them back under control but apparently there was no need.

 

“I will not peek on purpose, it happens from time to time. Especially when you are so nervous. I will not share anything I hear, I swear. I can’t help it.” She informed you.

 

You didn’t need to be a mind reader to know she was nervous herself. She was worried she’d scare you off.

 

“Read my mind whenever you want. Really. Just know I don’t like to talk about most of what's up there and for the love of all that’s holy don’t tell Clint.” You sniggered.

 

Her face lit up at your easy acceptance and invitation and she squeezed your arm affectionately. You preened at having put that look on her face.

 

Your new friendship with Wanda quickly turned out to be a life saver as her quick thinking and red misty shield was the only reason you hadn’t accidentally blasted a hole in the side of the compound with an ice rock. You’d only been trying to make a snowflake.

 

“You are out of practice.” She frowned as she trudged over the shattered shards of ice.

 

“At least the grass will get watered?” You offered.

 

“My powers are tied into my emotions. Maybe yours are as well? I think until you find a way to deal with your emotions, trying to control your abilities may be futile.” You told you sadly.

 

“Yeah. Yeah, you might be right.” You begrudgingly admitted.

 

Anyone else and you’ve have told them to fuck off but she was literally in your head. It was actually kind of a relief to have someone in your brain like this, you didn’t have to hide anything or have to talk about it either.

 

“You have already started to open up to The Captain, perhaps you can speak to him. Or Sam, Sam is kind and he’s a therapist.”

 

“I’ll think about it.” You told her.

 

She raised an eyebrow at you and you rolled your eyes.

 

“Alright, I won’t. But I’ll try to consider opening up.” You offered.

 

“It’s a start.”

 

 

Despite the Icy mishap you were in a great mood. Initially you’d been pissed about having to join the team but you’d already made friends, Natasha was talking to you again and you had really really missed your brother. Spending time with Clint was already making you feel better. So you practically skipped to the lab to see Dr Banner, excited to have a Science buddy.

 

It went horribly wrong almost straight away.

 

Stark was there, glaring at you as Banner tried to show you something under a microscope and explain it and as he stormed over to kick you out of his lab and as you turned round to get into an argument with him you knocked something over.

 

You didn’t know what it was but as you watched it sail across the room in slow motion you had the sinking feeling it wasn’t going to be good, because it was headed straight for Stark.

 

The glass beaker smashed across Stark’s arm and straight away he was hissing and swearing in pain. An alarm started blaring and you panicked.

 

“Don’t hulk out!” You yelled at Banner as you tried to pull Tony’s shirt off.

 

Sam could hear the alarm and yelling from the lab as he approached it and hurried his pace, rushing into the room ready to spring into action but the sight that met him was so perplexing he wasn’t sure what to do.

 

Banner was stood in the corner reciting the periodic table at the top of his voice, Stark was rolling on the floor and you were stood in the middle of the chaos with a fire extinguisher as you sprayed Tony.

 

“Louder Dr Banner!” You instructed as you gently kicked Stark to see if he was still conscious.

 

Sam backed out of the room slowly as you started spraying Tony with the extinguisher again. No way he was getting involved in that.

 

 

“ _It was an accident!”_

 

“ _You threatened to knock Bruce out if he didn't recite the periodic table! Why?” Clint demanded, trying to look stern and not laugh._

 

“ _I didn’t want him to Hulk out! I was trying to help!”_

 

“ _Accidents happen in the lab all the time, he wasn’t going to Hulk out.”_

 

“ _I didn't know that!”_

 

“ _Why’d you spray Tony with a fire extinguisher?”_

 

“ _He said it was burning! I thought I was helping!” You insisted._

 

“ _You’re a walking disaster.”_

 

“ _You’re a hypocrite, Remember Birmingham?”You said with a smug look._

 

“ _We agreed never to speak of that again.”_

 

“ _Well I think we should add today to the list of taboo subjects.”_

 

“What the hell are they doing?” Tony asked Natasha as he watched you and Clint wave your hands at each other through the glass.

 

She glanced over and smirked.

 

“Arguing about who’s the bigger dumbass between the two of them.”

 

“Why aren’t they talking? Why are they doing it in secret?”

 

“They’re just used to using ASL to talk. It’s habit.”

 

“Why? Some sort of spy thing?” Tony snapped.

 

“Stark, you do know that Clint is deaf don’t you?”

 

“What? No he’s not. I speak to him all the time.” Tony said.

 

“He has hearing aids in.” Banner supplied, like it was obvious.

Which it was. To everyone except Tony apparently.

 

“Why did you think I was signing to Clint whenever I speak to him?” Natasha asked.

 

“I didn’t know you were, I thought you were just really animated when you talked. Like angry Italians.” He insisted.

 

Natasha smacked him across the back of the head.

 

“Ow, what was that for?”

 

“For being an idiot.” She told him and stormed off.

 

“Everyone else knew Tony.” Bruce sighed.

 

Tony sulked.

 

“Friday?”

 

“Yes Boss, I knew.” Friday told him.

 

“That’s not what I was going to say. You know what forget it. Change the alarm protocols, make sure there are visual cues. Flashing lights, maybe some sort of vibrations?”

 

He didn't notice you and Clint had stopped arguing to watch him through the glass with twin looks of amusement.

 

“ _Well that settles it. Stark is the biggest idiot.”_

 

“ _Agreed.”_

 

“Are you alright?” Bucky demanded as he burst into the room.

 

He rushed over to you and started looking you over frantically.

 

“Uh, I’m fine.” You stammered.

 

“I heard there was an accident in the lab you were involved in.” He said.

 

“Oh for fuck sake. Perfect.” You snapped, storming away.

 

Everybody knew, brilliant. Second day here and you were already getting a reputation. You were so annoyed you didn’t see the hurt look on Bucky’s face as you stormed off.

 

He sighed as he realised he’d messed up again. He was just worried you might have been hurt, he didn’t mean to offend you somehow. Would he ever get this right?

 

“Wait!” He shouted at you, running after you.

 

Clint stifled a laugh as the super soldier rushed away.

 

“What?” You whined, turning to look at him with a pout.

You bottom lip was protruding and it was so distracting that he nearly tripped over his own feet. Stumbling to a stop in front of you he realised he didn’t actually have anything to say, he just hadn't wanted you to leave.

 

“Don’t do it again. Be so stupid I mean. Just... be careful.” He instructed you.

 

“Got it, I’m an idiot. Everyone knows it and they would like me to stop. Message received.” You snapped at him and walked off again.

 

He was going to throw himself off the roof, he really was.

 

“It’s just dangerous around here, you could get hurt if you aren’t careful. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

 

You looked back at him and saw nothing but sincerity in his eyes. You wrapped your arms around yourself nervously and nodded to show you’d understood before picking up your pace and quite literally running away from him.

 

Bucky threw his head back and groaned. Great, you weren’t offended now, you were just sad. He turned and walked in the opposite direction, berating himself with every step.

 

“Hey Buck, where are you headed?” Steve asked as he passed him in the corridor.

 

“The roof probably.” Bucky grunted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you to my beansy (UnitedKingdomOrgy) for helping me out with how to handle writing a deaf character. 
> 
> I'm floored by the response to this so far. Writing my second fic is actually more nerve-wracking than writing my first. 
> 
> I'm trying to make these chapters longer and smoother. I'm editing like a bitch and just really trying to improve the quality and I really really hope it shows!
> 
> I'd love to know what you think of Ice so far and the relationship and personalities of the other characters.


	4. Comrades in Ice

Bucky did end up on the roof, figuring the cool, fresh air would help him calm down. He couldn’t understand why he was getting so flustered around you, he barely knew you. Yes you were beautiful, more beautiful than anyone he’d ever seen. You carried yourself with quiet confidence, meek and powerful at the same time. Your eyes held so much mischief and history and when you laughed, god when you laughed his heart would flutter in his chest wildly.

 

He was infatuated. Completely, ridiculously infatuated.

 

He needed to stop being such a moronic idiot and figure out a way to woo you. If wooing was still a thing. Whatever it was called these days, he was going to do it. He was going to dig out the old charm and show you he was more than a blundering idiot.

 

Tomorrow was a new day and it would be the day he started his quest for your affections.

 

 

 

When you slipped into the kitchen the next morning, stretching your arms above your head as you yawned, you resisted the urge to run for your life. Clint was cooking.

 

He glanced up at you and your rumpled appearance and tired eyes.

 

“ _I’ll put coffee on.” He gestured at you and turned around without waiting for a response._

 

Your jaw clenched automatically as Stark sauntered into the kitchen.

 

"Elsa, Anna. Morning." He greeted in fake cheeriness.

 

"Good morning Sven." You nodded to him with a smirk.

 

Sam swung the door open and padded out into the open plan kitchen living area to see what the clattering and banging was. He stopped dead in the middle of the room with an almost comical look of confusion on his face.

 

“What are you doing?” He asked.

 

Clint looked up from the pan he was currently manning, coffee pot at his mouth as he slurped from it.

 

“M’cooking.” He muttered, passing the coffee pot to you.

 

You practically drained the pot, unable to help herself. You passed the empty pot back to Clint and looked around the room sheepishly.

 

“I needed that.” You said, shrugging your shoulders,

 

Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head in exasperation as Tony glared daggers at you.

 

"Two things, that's your coffee pot now because ew, germs. And since when do you cook?" He asked Clint.

 

A memory brought the ghost of a smile to your face. You had been 14 at the time and both you and Tasha had been highly entertained by the chaos and string of curse words coming out of Clint's mouth as he hopped around the kitchen, his arm on fire.

 

He had never been domestic, bless him. But he had tried and that was what mattered. He was still trying now even though you were all grown up.

 

You'd never be anything less than his baby sister in his eyes though.

 

He stayed silent, choosing to focus instead on pushing the bacon around the pan. The sounds of it sizzling were the only sounds in the kitchen as Sam sighed heavily and started setting the table.

 

"I'm not hungry." Tony announced.

 

“More for us then.” You muttered.

 

“I’m starving.” Sam said enthusiastically, a little too enthusiastically if the withering look Tony shot at him was any indication.

 

“Morning.” Steve said as he came in, frowning at Clint but choosing wisely not to comment.

 

“Morning Cap.” You said, brightening up at his appearance.

 

He had clearly been up for a while and looked like he’d just come back from a run. Your heart pitter patted a bit as Bucky came in the room behind him and before you could look away fixed you with a heartwarming, panty dropping grin.

 

“Morning doll.” He said, internally jumping up and down for joy at having got the words out.

 

“Mirnong... I mean morning,” You said, blushing and tripping over the words for god knows what reason.

 

“Eat your breakfast, I’ll get you more coffee.” Clint sniggered at you.

 

As soon as the two super soldiers sat down he started.

 

“ _What was that? Which one of them are you crushing on?”_

 

“ _Neither, shut up.” you hurried to sign back, the blush spreading down your neck._

 

Clint slid a cup of coffee to you with a look that said he clearly didn’t believe you and he chewed around the smirk breaking out on his face. Maybe you wouldn’t take the news headed your way too badly. Who was he kidding, you were going to throw a fit when you found out.

 

“So, Ice. I’ll be doing your physical evaluation today. Is in a couple of hours ok?” Steve asked you.

 

You frowned and looked between him and Clint before very calmly putting your fork down and standing up.

 

“Where is she?” You asked Clint in a calm, controlled tone.

 

“No idea.” He sniggered.

 

“Hmm, well then. I’ll just go and find her.” You said with a saccharine sweet smile.

 

Tasha had tortured you for nothing, straight after you woke up from a mini coma and you were furious as you stormed out of the kitchen and went searching for her, deep down knowing you wouldn’t find the tricky Russian fox.

 

Eventually, you had to abandon the fruitless search and headed towards the gym for the real evaluation, praying Steve would be kinder than Tasha.

 

“Hey, you going to the gym?” Someone asked and you turned your head to see Bucky Barnes stalking towards you.

 

Ignoring the stupid butterflies in your stomach you nodded.

 

He reached out, flicking your ID badge and chortled.

 

“Level One Clearance huh? Poor you.” He smirked at you.

 

You frowned and looked at the badge, you hadn’t actually paid any attention to what it said when Stark had flung it at your face about twenty minutes ago and told you that you needed to keep it on you.

 

“That bad?” You asked.

 

“Level One means you’re not even cleared to get a pencil from supplies without a higher level agent signing off on it.” He told you.

 

“Fantastic. What level are you?” You groaned.

 

“Six. I’m a full fledged Avenger doll, only Cap and Stark have higher clearance.” He told you smugly.

 

“Well, I’ll come to find you if I need a pencil then, seeing as you’ve taken me under your metaphorical wing.” You said laughing.

 

Bucky preened, silently congratulating himself for this smooth conversation.

 

“You can come to me for anything you like, I’d be happy to lend you a helping hand.” He said lowly, laying on the charm.

 

You started to smile back at him and forced yourself to stop. For someone who didn’t want to be here, you were making an awful lot of friends. You never made friends in the army, in fact you could count the number of friends you had on two fingers and one of those was your brother.

 

You’d known these people for five minutes, why were you letting your defenses slip down around them?

 

Your shoulders tensed up and he read the change in your body language and thought he had offended or annoyed you.

 

“I should get going, won’t make a good impression if I’m late.” You said shortly and jogged away.

 

He’d come on too strong and he was regretting it. He must have seemed like any other creep trying his luck with you and you had bolted. He sighed and realized he’d have to rethink his approach.

 

 

You practically ran into the gym and Steve turned around to look at you curiously.

 

“Everything ok?” He asked you, frowning.

 

“What? Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?” You asked, putting your hands on your hips and trying to act like you weren’t winded.

 

“Are you sure you were a spy? You’re a terrible liar.” He said, smirking at you and waiting patiently for you to tell the truth.

 

“I was worried you’d reprimand me if I was late. And I didn't do much espionage, I was more on the breaking and entering, stealing things side of the operation.” You admitted.

 

“I’m not Nat, and I watched the footage of her evaluation of you. I was impressed. She’s right about you needed to train more, you clearly have a lot of untapped potential but your marksmanship was really impressive. I haven’t seen anyone that good since Bucky.” He complimented you.

 

“Oh. Does that mean I can go?” You asked hopefully.

 

“Nope.” He replied, tossing a pair of boxing gloves at you.

 

“We’re going to work on your stamina.” He explained.

 

You resisted the urge to wiggle your eyebrows at him and tried to put the gloves on. He watched you struggle for a minute and when you started trying to use your teeth he barked out a laugh and came over to help.

 

“We should also talk about your um... ice issues.” He said.

 

“You mean that little issue where I keep trying to turn people into human popsicles?” You asked.

 

“Yeah, that one. Been there and done that so I don’t really want to go through it again.” He joked.

 

“Are my powers an issue for you?” You asked nervously.

 

“Unless you plan on freezing me for another seven decades then no.” He answered as you got into a hitting stance and started tapping the bag.

 

“I can’t get my powers under control. I’m really out of practice.” You admitted as he kicked your back leg into the correct stance.

 

“You left an ice replica of an Iron Suit, Nat showed me the photos. It was perfect. How do you go from being able to achieve that level of intricate detail to not being able to use your powers at all?”

 

You paused your hits and grabbed the swinging bag while you thought about how to answer. You didn’t see Bucky at the door, you thought it was just you and Steve.

 

“There was a mission in Moscow. Shield never sent me on Missions with Tasha and Clint usually. But this time they did, they sent me and Elijah to back them up.”

 

“Elijah, he was your...”

 

“Fiancée.”

 

Bucky nearly bit his own tongue at the mention of a fiancée. He shouldn’t be eavesdropping but he couldn’t walk in and interrupt you now and he was too rooted to the spot to walk away.

 

“What happened?” Steve asked.

 

“Bad intel. They were more prepared than we’d been led to believe and they were waiting for us. The leader, the guy we were after wanted to make me suffer. He locked me in a room with Tasha, Clint and Elijah. They were chained up but I wasn’t and there was a gun on the floor with one bullet. He told me I had to kill one of them or he would kill us all.”

 

You heard Steve’s sharp intake of breath as he put the pieces together.

 

“You didn’t have a choice.” He stated.

 

“Actually I did, I had a choice between the three people I loved most in the world. And I killed the man I was supposed to marry. Natasha never quite forgave me for not killing her. She thought it should have been her.”

 

“Why, why did you choose him?” He asked softly.

 

“I couldn’t make the choice as a sister or a fiancée. So I made it as a Shield agent. I killed the lowest level agent, the one we could afford to lose.” You said coldly.

 

Steve was shaken as he silently regarded you.

 

“Shield arrived to rescue us, too late. They took the mark in, they were going to lock him up. I lost control, completely. I tried to kill him, and I did. But I couldn’t switch it off, I had to let it out and kill everyone there or blast it skyward.. Do you know what happens if you shoot ice into the sky, rapidly cooling the atmosphere?”

 

“No.” Steve admitted with a frown, he was betting it wasn’t good.

 

“Super storm. I would have killed thousands of people if it wasn’t for Agent Hill. She shot me. When I woke up I told Fury to tell everyone I was dead and I disappeared. I made the hard choice for Shield, made it without hesitating. But I couldn’t live with it. I loved him, I was going to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him and instead I shot him in the head.” You said, punching the bag as hard as you could.

 

“I can’t imagine having to make that kind of choice.” Steve admitted.

 

You were expecting a different reaction, deep down that’s why you’d told him. He was Captain America, a paragon of justness and righteousness. He should have been disgusted by you but all you saw in his eyes was sympathy. You couldn’t look at him anymore and turned your back, taking your self loathing out on the bag.

 

“That’s why you’re out of practice? You don’t want to use it after what happened?”He deduced. 

 

“I locked my abilites away and with them my heart. I decided I didn’t want to use them ever again and I know that this kind of life means I can’t ever love someone again.”

 

“I used to want love and a family but when I went into the ice all those notions went with me. I guess both our hearts are frozen. They have to be.” Steve said.

 

You huffed out a sad, unamused laugh.

 

“Comrades in ice?” You asked and he chuckled and fist bumped your proffered boxing glove.

 

You had no idea Bucky Barnes had heard the whole thing and was walking away, his own heart far from frozen but instead heavy. He knew his silly little crush could never come to anything. No wonder you’d been so spooked by his flirting.

 

But what he’d heard hadn’t changed his admiration for you, it just added a desire to see you happier.

 

He’d have to be your friend. You needed a friend and this way he could be a part of your life and get over his infatuation.

 

 

Steve left the gym before you, letting you finish up your stretches when Stark came wandering in, whistling casually. You rolled your eyes and ignored him, walking over to the large doors and frowned when they wouldn’t open. You pushed them again and they didn’t budge. You whirled round to face Tony who was smirking at you.

 

“Why are the doors locked?” You demanded.

 

“Because I’m not finished with you yet. You don’t get out of this room unless I say so and until you tell me who you really are and why you’re here, you aren’t getting out.” Tony threatened.

 

A whimper ripped out of your throat and your eyes began darting around the room, looking for an escape.

 

Tony could see the sweat beading across your brow from where he stood, could see the tremors running through your body. You were scared, he realized with a start of surprise.

 

You had one of the worst cases of Claustrophobia he’d ever seen since they were standing in a huge room with floor to ceiling windows and he could tell from your body language that you were on the brink of having a massive freak out. He could practically smell the fear on you.

 

“Let me out.” You demanded, your voice hard and angry.

 

He met your eyes and noted the sheer desperation and fear in them.

 

He had no idea you would react like this to being locked in a room, he just wanted to confront you. He genuinely felt guilty and was about to open his mouth and order Friday to let you out when he felt a physical change in the air.

 

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees and a noise behind him had him turning around to watch the windows as frost crawled across the floor, creeping up the windows and branching out across them before they shattered, dropping shards of glass bigger than a person onto the floor with an ear-splitting crash.

 

Barely five minutes later Tony picked up your ID badge, the one you’d dropped by the shattered windows before you ran across the broken glass. Clearly, you had realised it could be used to locate you and ditched it before you ditched the compound.

 

Glass crunched underfoot as Natasha approached, Clint a few paces behind. The two of them regarded the damage with exasperation.

 

“Could have told you locking my sister up wasn’t going to go well for you Stark, might have saved you a few thousand dollars.” Clint remarked.

 

“Alright, I didn’t know it was an issue. I didn’t mean to spook her.” Tony admitted with a heavy sigh.

 

“She’s had claustrophobia since she was a kid, she still has nightmares about it. Something you might have known if you talked to her instead of accusing her of being a spy for Fury. I did know about it, do you know how? Because she is who she says she is, she’s Clint’s sister and as far as I’m concerned, mine as well.” Natasha snapped.

 

“Doesn’t matter right now, we need to find her. She’s unstable. Any idea where she might have run off to?” Tony asked wearily.

 

Clint and Natasha exchanged a knowing glance.

 

 

 

You didn't turn around as you felt your brother approach and sit in the barstool next to you.

 

“ _We need to talk about what happened with Braxton and with Fury taking me in.”Y_ ou admitted.

 

“ _You think?”_

 

“ _I knew who he was. Someone gave me a lead to hunt down the rest of the organization responsible for Elijah’s death.”_

 

Clint ground his teeth together at your admittance.

 

“ _I couldn’t let it go Clint, I just couldn't.”_

 

“ _Cut the Bullshit Ice.”_ He interrupted _._

 

You flinched in surprise at his anger and he took advantage of your silence.

 

_"You fucked up by going after Braxton, two years off the grid, getting close to him and ignoring everyone. Me. And for what? To lose control and end up being forced to join the Avengers?"_

 

“ _I don’t need your help with my abilities.”_ You said before he could go down that route.

 

“ _Here we go..”_ He sighed.

 

“ _I know how they work, I know how to control them. I’m just a little out of practice.”_ You insisted _._

 

“ _You killed a lot of people. I know you like to act tough but that isn’t something you’re ok with, what you did wasn’t a blip because you’re out of practice. Despite your warm and cuddly exterior, you’re a good person and you don’t want to be slaughtering people. You can handle it in the moment but you can't live with yourself afterwards.”_

 

“ _What do you think I’ve been doing for the past four years? You really think I’ve been serving in the US Army and not killed anybody? There’s so much blood on my hands that it’ll never wash off, those bastards I froze in the desert are barely a dent in my kill count.”_

 

He knew that you weren’t an innocent, but to hear you say it so casually was a different thing. You had become more like him in the time you’d been gone and that wasn’t what he had wanted for you.

 

“ _You’ve killed, to protect people. You’ve done bad things for good reasons so don’t you dare judge me for doing the same thing.”_ You told him.

 

“ _Why the hell didn’t you tell me and Tasha what you were doing?”_ He demanded.

 

“ _I_ _was_ _trying to protect you.”_

 

“ _Haven’t you learned your lesson about protecting me?”_

 

“ _I don’t care that you’re still mad about that, I know you’ll never forgive me for it but you’re hurt feelings ain’t my main concern. I was trying to keep you alive.”_ You said and threw back your drink and slammed the glass down angrily.

 

You shook your head.

 

“ _I don’t want to relive the same old argument, what’s done is done and neither of us can change it.”_

 

“ _Don’t I know it.”_ He said.

 

“ _I don’t need to you teach me how to use my abilities, I can figure it out on my own. I do need your help though.”_ You told him.

 

He paused, waiting for you to continue.

 

“ _We thought The Scorpion was a weapons dealer and human trafficker. We were wrong. The Scorpion was dealing in human weapons, he’s trafficking mutants. And Braxton wasn't The Scorpion, The Scorpion doesn't_ _exist._ _It's a front, a cover._ _The whole thing goes deeper than any of us realized,_ _”_ You revealed.

 

“ _Why not tell Fury?”_ He asked.

 

“ _Because he can’t be trusted. Braxton had information he shouldn’t have, he knew what I was. He knows about the school. He has double agents everywhere… I can't tell anyone without putting them in danger.”_

 

“ _So who’s behind it? Who has you so spooked?”_

 

“ _I overheard Braxton using on the phone before he drugged me. He said a name.”_

 

“ _What was the name?”_

 

“ _Magneto.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are my loves. I hope this was worth the wait, personally I struggled with this chapter but I'm really hoping the effort I put in paid off.


	5. Fire and Ice

By the time Clint got you back to the compound, you were stumbling so much he had to wrap an arm around you and drag you inside while you giggled at the fact you were walking without moving your legs. You passed two blurs that you were relatively sure were Steve and Sam and waved happily at them.

 

“Hellooooooo!” You called.

 

“We passed them two minutes ago. They’re gone.” Clint chuckled and you swung your head around wildly in confusion, searching for them.

 

“Go back!” You insisted.

 

“No, you need to lie down before you fall down.” He insisted.

 

“I wanna see Cap!” You whined, unaware that your attempts at signing were coming out as pure gibberish.

 

 

Bucky rounded the corner in concern, needing to see why you were arguing and sounding upset. What he saw was you stumble away from your brother who looked semi amused and semi frustrated as you fell into a wall and bounced off it. You turned around with your fists up, looking around to see what had bumped into you.

 

“Please don’t fight the wall.” Bucky laughed, realising you were drunk.

 

“Bucky!” You yelled, spotting him.

 

For a drunk person you were fast as you shot towards him and he barely managed to move in time to stop you barrelling into him. Apparently drunk you had no depth perception. He steadied you with a hand on your shoulder and you blinked at him, looking strangely awed.

 

“Your eyes….” You said.

 

“My eyes?” He asked.

 

“They’re… they’re really pr……” You stuttered before your eyes closed and you slumped forwards, nearly headbutting him in the chest.

 

He wrapped his arms around you and held you upright as you passed out. Clint barked out a loud laugh and hurried forwards to take you from a perplexed and frantic Bucky.

 

“Is she ok?” Bucky asked, fussing over you.

 

“She’s fine, this is what happens when someone without a super soldier metabolism drinks a bottle of cheap whisky.” Clint chuckled, slinging you over his shoulder and walked away, whistling a jovial tune.

 

Bucky watched him carry you away and whished you’d finished your sentence before you fainted. It had almost sounded like you were going to say his eyes were pretty but that couldn’t have been it. Could it? Well he’d never know now. 

 

Hangovers were so not fun, but at least someone had been kind enough to leave a putrid looking green smoothie in your suite that while tasted gross, did wonders for the pounding in your skull and shaking in your body. Whoever it was, you owed them a thank you card.

 

The compound was quiet and you took advantage of the calm, sprawling out in the common room with a cup of coffee and a pile of trashy magazines Wanda had leant you. You spent an hour that way, enjoying the serenity before you were interrupted.

 

“We have a mission.” Natasha told you, standing above and blocking the light.

 

“Alright, have fun. Bring me back a bad guys ear or something.” You joked, flipping through the magazine Wanda had leant you.

 

A few moments passed and when Tasha didn’t move you slowly looked up at her in horror.

 

“When you say we?” You gulped.

 

“I mean we…. Wheels up in 20.” She smirked.

 

 

 

 

You were sat in the corner of the Quinjet, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible because Clint kicked you out of the co-pilots seat when Stark dumped a black case in front of you and when you didn’t immediately open it he rolled his eyes and flipped open the clips on the case and did it for you. Curiously you peered inside and gasped.

 

“Tracking Point Precision-Guided Bolt-Action .338 TP, with a few upgrades by yours truly.” He said proudly.

 

“Why?” You asked suspiciously.

 

“Heard you were a good shot; thought you might need something with a little more oomph that your usual standard issue long distance rifle.” He said shrugging.

 

You realized he was apologising for locking you in the gym, in the only way he knew how.

 

“She’s beautiful.” You said, unpacking the various parts from the case and familiarising yourself with her.

 

He nodded in satisfaction and wandered away. Steve took his place and sat down next to you.

 

“We’re putting you on the roof with Barton. If you see something call it, if you must take a shot then take it but you’re mostly here to get to know how we work on a mission. It’s not often we get to ease a team member in properly so we’re taking it.” He said, offering you a comforting smile.

 

“Pretty sure I can handle it.” You lied, grinning at him.

 

“Cap, you wanna get up here and actually explain what this missions about or shall we just wing it so you can sit there and flirt with the newbie?” Tony asked.

 

“You’ve got this.” Steve whispered, smiling at you as he stood up.

 

“We’re taking down an AIM Research building. We’re not trying to be subtle about it, they’ve got unwilling test subjects on site, so our objective is to rescue the prisoners and shut down the operation.” He began.

 

Everyone watched him as he stood there, explaining things with an easy and inspiring confidence but you glanced around, sure you could feel someone watching you. Years of paranoia and hiding had given you a good sense about these things and you pretended to be studying the rifle scope while pinpointing the direction the eyes on you were coming from. Without warning you looked up, right at Bucky Barnes. He looked taken aback when you met his gaze. You raised a questioning eyebrow at him and he nodded towards the rifle in your hands. Of course, he was a military sniper you remembered. He was watching the gun, not you. You motioned with your head for him to come over and after he quickly glanced at Steve, he silently made his way towards you, settling in the seat next to yours.

 

You turned your body so you were facing him and he silently watched as you held the different parts for the rifle, getting used to the weight of them before you finally assembled it, taking your time. You disassembled it at the same slow pace and he cocked his head curiously at you.

 

“What are you doing?” He whispered.

 

You shot him a soft smile before you closed your eyes and seamlessly assembled the rifle quickly without looking. When you opened your eyes, he was gazing at you with an impressed look and he nodded once in approval at you.

 

All could do was nod, his throat had all but closed up. He dug his fingers into his thigh, hoping you didn’t notice. The sheer practiced ease with which you’d blindly assembled a complicated weapon after only trying It once had sent every single ounce of Bucky’s blood rushing south and it took all his self-control not to gape at you. Friends, he reminded himself. Friends and nothing more. He had to repeat the word to himself over and over in his head like a fucking mantra as you offered the rifle to him for a go.

“Hey, gun buddies. You two paying attention?” Sam called and the two of you whipped your heads around to see that Sam had drawn everyone’s attention to you.

“Cap and I are going in the west side, Nat and Wanda from the east, Banners waiting to knock on the front door, us Barton’s will be covering from the residential building opposite the facility and every team has a flier covering them.” You rattled off with ease.

Steve nodded at you, satisfied you had been listening and thankfully nobody saw the sly wink you shot Wanda to thank her.

 

 

 

_“So, which one of the frosty fans are you flirting with? Or is it both?”_ Clint asked you as he scoped out the roof, looking for the best place to set up.

_“I’m not flirting with anyone; I’m just trying to make friends.”_ You said, rolling your eyes.

_“You don’t make friends. You have family, fans or enemies.”_ He pointed out.

_“Yeah well I’m stuck here on team Superhero now, I have to make the most of it.”_ You grumbled.

_“You are sizing them up to see if they can be trusted with your mission against Magneto?”_  Clint guessed as he found his spot, setting up.

You were supposed to stick with him but there was a small nook on the other side of the roof that you would fit in perfectly, it would give you cover, and you could set up the rifle on the ledge. Clint saw you eyeing it up and nodded.

“The Barton’s are in position.” He said over the comms.

“I’ve got eyes on Team Red; you might want to duck down a couple more inches Wanda.” You told Wanda and Nat and barely a second later the top of Wanda’s head disappeared from view.

“Thanks.” She said over the comms to you.

“That’s everybody in place. Ground teams, move in.” Cap instructed.

You took a deep calming breath, exhaling slowly. As soon as the last bit of oxygen was pushed from your lungs your mind cleared. Mission brain took over and your training kicked in as you looked around, moving the scope with you. You carefully watched the windows, looking for movement. Two men in a filing room caught your attention and you saw them pulling files out of a cabinet and dumping them in a metal wastepaper basket. When one of them pulled a box of matches out of his pocket you realized they were trying to destroy evidence. You pulled the trigger and the back of his skull exploded half a second later. Before his companion had a chance to duck you pulled the trigger again and his head went the same way as his companions.

Keeping a watchful eye on the door to that room through the window you turned your attention elsewhere. On the lower levels you could see flashes of a fight, but you didn’t have a good enough view to see who it was until you saw a flash of metal and identified Bucky.

“Hawkeye do you have eyes on Cap and Winter?” You asked.

“Got them.” Clint answered and you turned your attention away.

“Ice we’ve got runners on the west side, I’ve got the two on the far left.” Tony said and you swung the rifle around to see what he was pointing you towards.

You caught a flash of movement, a white lab coat.

“Kill or maim?” You asked coldly.

“Maim.” Tony said and you pulled the trigger, taking out the scientists’ right kneecap in an explosion of blood and bone.

“Could use a little help here guys.” Tasha said and you saw Clint turn in her direction out of the corner of your eye, so you trusted him to take care of that one.

You saw movement in the doorway you’d been idly watching as someone dove inside, out of the line of fire. They scrambled for the box of matches and you internally swore. You watched carefully, waiting for your moment and when you saw a hand holding a flickering match your eyes zeroed in on it. Gently squeezing the trigger, you shot at the match, not the hand. If the dropped the match, then even dead they would have succeeded in destroying the evidence. Your aim proved true and the bullet whizzed through the match, taking several fingers with it. Clint let out a low whistle of approval and fired an arrow through the window, killing the mark for you.

“Guys, we aren’t the only ones here!” Steve yelled and you had a moment of confusion before all was explained.

The explanation came in the form of a fireball shooting from the sky and landing on the ground in front of the facility. A fireball that was shaped like a person.

“Is that…” You asked.

“The Fantastic Four.” Sam grumbled unhappily.

You saw the human fireball shoot a line of flames at the building, at the second floor and swore.

“Cap, there’s a lot of files on the second floor that AIM keep trying to burn. If blaze boy isn’t careful, he’s going to do their job for them.” You said.

“Can anyone get to the second floor and retrieve those files?” Steve asked and was met with a resounding chorus of ‘no’s’ and ‘little busy here’s.’

“I can do it.” You offered.

“No Ice, you’re on watch only.” Steve said.

“Tell that to the two men missing the backs of their skulls.” You muttered.

“Cap, if AIM don’t want us to see those files, I really want to see them.” Tasha pointed out.

“Come on Cap. Breaking in and stealing shit, it’s my forte. I can do this.” You said.

“In and out. Get the files and get back to Barton. And be careful.” Steve said, sighing.

You stood up with a grin of satisfaction and rotated your shoulder.

“Want me to open a path for you?” Clint asked and you nodded.

Two second later an arrow attached itself to the ledge above the window of the room you were heading for with a zip wire attached. You pulled your jacket off twisted it into shape. Sitting on the ledge of the building in front of Clint you felt a lost feeling of excitement bubble up inside you and smiled.

“I have missed this.” You admitted and Clint chuckled at you.

“Go get em Tiger.” He instructed and you swung your jacket over the zip line and pushed away from the wall.

You speedily zoomed towards the window and waited until you were a foot away before letting go of the jacket with one hand and pushing your feet out in front of you, sailing easily through the window and landing on your feet. You swung your jacket over your shoulders and zipped it up and you peered into the waste paper basket. You didn’t have time to go through the files so you gathered them all up and looked around the room. You found a briefcase under a desk and emptied out the contents of someone’s personal effects and lunch onto the desk and shoved the papers inside, catching the apple before it rolled off the table and biting into it as you clicked the briefcase closed.

“Files obtained, making my way out now.” You said over the comms, chewing on the apple.

“Did you stop for lunch?” Tony asked.

“Gotta get my five a day somehow.” You defended yourself as you made your way back over to the window and climbing onto the ledge.

“ICE GET DOWN!” Clint yelled and you barely made it back inside the room before a wave of fire hit where you’d been seconds before.

“Uh, I don’t think the Fantastic Four got the memo about me.” You realised out loud as the flames roared over your head.

There was movement in the flames and when you looked up, there was a man standing behind you.

“I’m going to need that briefcase beautiful.” He said, nodding at it.

“Alright, Johnny Storm, right? I’ll tell you what, since I’m such a big fan you can have it.” You told him, holding it out and smiling.

He tentatively reached out, looking at you suspiciously as he took it. You held your hands up in the universal symbol of surrender and looked as innocent as you could.

“Now why can’t all bad guys be this smart OOOOFT” He grunted as you dropped to your knees and grabbed his leg and yanked, knocking him to the floor.

“Listen to me. LISTEN!” You yelled, pinning him down.

“When you said you were a fan, this wasn’t what I had in mind. Not that I’m complaining.” You joked, cocking an eyebrow and looking down at the way you were straddling him.

“Not really a fan. I’m an Avenger Hot stuff.” You said, rolling your eyes at him.

“Sure you are. And might I say, you’re looking pretty hot yourself.” He said.

You felt uncomfortably warm as you realized he wasn’t flirting and you rolled off of him a split second before he burst into flames underneath you.

“Motherfucker.” You swore as he shot flames at you.

You didn’t have a choice and brought your hands up, blindly reaching inside yourself for the power that lived within you and just before the flames would have hit you, they hit an ice wall. He pushed more of the blazing heat at you and you desperately pushed back, shooting Ice at him. The resulting chaos of fire meeting ice blew out of the side of the building, leaving a gaping hole in the side of it and you and Johnny were blasted apart, landing on opposite sides of the room.

“You know I’d ask you dinner, if you weren’t going to spend the rest of your life in prison.” He said, standing and brushing himself off.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll allow conjugal visits…” You said, winking at him.

He really did look more like Steve in person than you’d expected but he was smaller, cockier and just _different_. Still, it was a little unsettling.

“Look, I really am with the Avengers.” You told him, holding your hands out.

“Starting to hope that’s true.” He said, blatantly checking you out.

“Uh yeah, she’s with us. Need a lift Ice?” Sam called, hovering outside of the window.

The look on Storm’s face was comical as he looked between you and The Falcon and you bit down a bark of laughter and ran for the window, picking up the briefcase on your way and leaping out of the hole in the building, being caught easily by Sam.

“See you around Johnny.” You said as Sam flew you away, dropping you off back on the roof with Clint.

Clint was struggling to contain his own laughter as Johnny peered out of the building after you, looking thunderstruck.

“Don’t even try to deny it. That was flirting.” Clint chuckled.

“How would you know?” You asked.

“You left your comm on.” Clint smirked.

 

Bucky was even more of a killing machine that usual as he made his way upstairs, trying to get to you but Sam had beaten him to it. You had happily flirted away with the Steve wannabe, and he couldn’t figure out why. You said you weren’t interested in anything like that so was it just a tactic to distract Storm or was there more to it? He was driving himself crazy trying to figure it out and when the mission was finally blessedly over, and all the bad guys were dead or tied up he stomped outside to look for you and make sure you hadn’t been hurt. He came outside at the same time you and Clint did, your bothers arm slung over your shoulder as you proudly presented Steve with the briefcase

 

“Well done Ice.” Steve congratulated you, taking it.

“This is Doctor Reed Richards and his wife, Susan Storm.” Steve explained, introducing you to the two people next to him.

“I’m sorry about Johnny.” Sue apologised, shaking your hand.

“Thank you for rescuing the research though. It’s why we were here.” Dr Richards thanked you, also shaking your hand.

“Well you might want to warn the fireball next time. He almost torched it.” You told them.

“Snitch.” Johnny called, landing behind you.

He de-flamed and you had the opportunity to look between him and Steve curiously.

“You get used to it.” Sue whispered to you and you nodded dumbly.

You didn’t see how anyone could get used to that. They were practically identical, if it weren’t for the vastly different personalities shining through. And Steve’s muscles.

“Hey, are you ok?” Bucky demanded, coming over to you and glaring at Johnny Storm.

You were taken aback you the concern but managed to smile at the Winter Soldier.

“I’m ok, really. He’s not that tough.” You teased loudly and Johnny scoffed.

“Anytime you want a re-match Ice Queen, say the word.” He challenged.

“The word.” You deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at him and squaring up.

“NO!” Dr Richards, Sue, Clint and Steve said in unison.

“We need to get you to the med bay, come on.” Bucky all but snarled, wrapping an arm around your waist and dragging you towards the Quinjet.

It was so unexpected you didn’t immediately react and were a good few metres away before you looked at him. He was looking straight ahead, towards the Quinjet.

“I’m fine. Down soldier.” You quipped, wriggling away.

“You’ve got a cut on your leg.” He snapped and you looked down.

“Huh, look at that.” He was right, there was a long bloody gash along the side of your right leg.

It must have happened when you landed on the broken glass or when you’d been blasted by The Human Torch. Now that you’d been made aware of it, it started to hurt and you let Bucky lead you up the ramp of the empty Quinjet and sit you down. He grabbed a first aid kit while you watched curiously.

“Why are you doing this?” You asked him as he gently lifted your injured leg onto his lap and peeled the leg of your trousers up.

“I don’t want it to get infected.” He said simply and started wiping away the blood with an anti-septic wipe.

“Didn’t know you cared.” You joked and he looked hurt for a split second.

It was awkwardly silent while he cleaned the skin around the cut and gently probed at it, making sure there was nothing in it. He found a tube of saline and flushed the wound out, cleaning it.

“You don’t need stitches; I’ll just put on a few steri-strips to close it and wrap it.” He decided.

“I’m not used to this. Usually only Clint or Tasha care if I get hurt and I haven’t exactly been around for them to care lately.” You told him.

His eyes flickered up to meet yours and he saw that your eyes betrayed the pain your tone of voice had hidden.

“You’re one of us now. We care. I care.” He said, looking back down as he wrapped a bandage around your leg.

“Careful Bucky, I could get used to that.” You joked weakly.

He finished wrapping your leg and gently pulled your trouser leg down again but didn’t move your leg from his lap.

“I hope you do.” He said, looking in your eyes to make sure you understand he meant it.

You didn’t have anything to say to that, so you just smiled gratefully at him. The corner of his lips twitched, and he softly smiled back at you.

“Can I just wait in here for everyone to be done or should I go back out there?” You asked.

“Stay. I’ll stay with you.” He told you.

So you stayed. The two of you stayed in the calm little corner of the chaos, together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes longer to get updated because the chapters are longer and more detailed so I hope that makes it worth the wait. I certainly hope this chapter was worth waiting for!


	6. A Memorable Frost

“Again!” You insisted, shaking your body loose and taking a deep breath.

 

“NO!” Clint yelled from behind the tree.

 

“Please? Just one more.” You pleaded.

 

“You said that on the last arrow. And the one before that. And the one before that.” Clint shouted.

 

“I’m getting better though.” You whined.

 

“You’re fucking not. You’re getting worse.” He grumbled, poking his head out from behind the tree to glare pointedly at the chunks of ice and freeze burned grass.

 

“I froze the last arrow!” You said indignantly, putting your hands on your hips.

 

“And half the lawn and two trees. The one before that got a cool breeze.” He grumbled, nocking another arrow anyway.

 

You planted your feet firmly on the ground and raised your hands, readying yourself.

 

“PULL!” You called.

 

Clint let the arrow fly and you summoned the icy power that was a part of you, blasting it at the arrow sailing towards you. Nothing happened.

 

“Ahhh!” You yelped, throwing yourself to the side to avoid it.

 

“Useless!”

 

“ _I hate you!”_ You signed at your brother from your ungraceful heap on the ground.

 

He scoffed and put his bow down, regarding you thoughtfully.

 

 _“Maybe it’s time you called for some help from the experts.”_ He suggested tentatively.

 

 _“Are you joking? You know they still haven’t forgiven me!”_ You said in disbelief.

_“That’s not true, The Professor isn’t one to hold grudges.”_ Clint argued.

_“Because I’m going to go near the mind reading professor while I know what I know.”_ You scoffed.

_“Well there’s always…”_ He started to suggest.

_“No! He still hates me anyway.”_ You said grumpily.

_“It’s been years, I’m sure he’s over it.”_ He tried to contend.

_“Not happening.”_ You asserted.

_“Suit yourself but I’m done. Me and my arrows have suffered enough.”_ He huffed, stomping away.

 

You groaned and threw yourself back onto the grass, looking up at the sky.

 

“Hi.” Bucky said softly, walking over slowly with an air that was part curiosity, part concern.

 

You tilted your head to look up at him, watching as he cautiously made his way over to you, avoiding the larger ice chunks. There was a look of wonder and awe in his eyes, especially for the ice boulder than was twice the size of him. He was dressed for working out and you guessed he’d been running when he saw you and probably come over to make sure you hadn’t accidentally knocked yourself out with an Ice missile.

 

“Hey.” You said, waving to him.

 

His shadow blocked the sunlight as he stood over you, looking torn.

 

“Do you need help getting up?” He offered.

 

“Or, you could sit down.” You countered.

 

There was a light thump as he took you up on the offer and settled onto the grass next to you.

 

“You know… I have ice powers, and I was in the army.” You told him.

 

“Yeah, I heard.” He smirked.

 

“So…” You said.

 

“So?” he asked, clearly lost as to where you were going with this.

 

“One could argue that I am The Winter Soldier.” You explained, grinning.

 

He let out a huff of laughter.

 

“I’ll tell Hydra they infringed on your copyright.” He chuckled and you immediately sobered.

 

He hadn’t picked the damn name, you knew that. What had possessed you to say something so insensitive you had no idea. Actually, you did know. It was your brain and it was an asshole.

 

“I’m sorry. It’s bad enough I’m flaunting my freezy stuff around and then I go and say something like that. I don’t know why you even talk to me.” You groaned.

 

“You’re pretty nice. At least when you aren’t talking anyway.” He said and you squawked indignantly.

 

“No, the Ice doesn’t bother me that much though. My memories are intact, so I just try and think of good snow related memories.” He admitted.

 

“You do?” You asked gently, leaving it open for him to divulge or change the subject.

 

“Yeah. When I was a kid, I loved the snow, meant less school and more playing. As soon as the first flakes fell every year, I’d bundle Stevie up in every coat we owned, his, mine, his mother’s… I’d drag him outside to watch it fall. I loved the way it would settle on the ground you know. It was like watching the world become a blank canvass, the pavements and grass just slowly turning white until they were untouched. It was beautiful.” He said wistfully.

 

You got lost in his voice, the bittersweet pain behind the memory.

 

“Sounds amazing.” You whispered.

 

“It was. Kind of like now….” He said, grinning at you like he knew something you didn’t and pushing you to a sitting position.

 

Spreading outwards from you there was a radius of pure white snow blanketing the ground. Exactly as you’d been picturing in your mind.

 

“I did it!” You breathed out in shock.

 

“Yeah doll, you did.” He said gently, proudly.

 

“I did it!” You exclaimed.

 

And before you could think about it you launched yourself at him, throwing your arms around his neck and landing on his lap. His arms automatically caught you and he hesitated for barely a moment before wrapping them around your torso. You stilled as you realized what you’d just done and pulled back abruptly, blushing like mad.

 

You’d just launched yourself at him… You’d be lucky if he didn’t file a sexual harassment claim.

 

“I’m so sorry! I just got caught up in the excitement, I didn’t mean to offend you.” You said in a rush.

 

He looked stricken and guilt twisted at your gut. Then his arm snaked around your waist and pulled you back in.

 

“You did good Ice; you deserve a hug.” He quipped, enclosing you in the warm embrace.

 

Your mind sat back and refused to interfere as your head rested itself on his shoulder and you wrapped your arms around him.

 

“I… Thank you Bucky. Thank you.” You sighed happily, nuzzling into him.

 

He was sure you were going to notice the erratic hammering of his heart in his chest and regretfully pulled away before he lost any more sense.

 

“Well, you should probably get inside now that’s the weathers taken a turn.” He suggested nervously.

 

“I have to tell Clint!” You said excitedly jumping to your feet and running off.

 

You got a few meters before you turned, jogging backwards so you could smile at him.

 

“Seriously, thank you.” You said again.

 

“Anytime doll.”

 

You raced back inside to gloat to your brother but along the way you were brought to a screeching halt by a text message.

 

A very intriguing text message.

 

~~~~~Two Hours Later~~~~~

 

You stepped out of your room, satisfied with your appearance and headed for the elevator when your phone buzzed again.

 

 **Big (Brother) Bird** : Where are you going?

 

You read the text from Clint and scoffed, shoving the phone back in your pocket when it buzzed again.

 

 **Big (Brother) Bird:** Don’t ignore me you ‘lil shit.

 

You looked around and backed up a few steps, looking at the ceiling.

 

“I know you’re up there!” You called loudly.

 

There was a banging noise and you jumped out of the way, barely avoiding being smacked in the head with the vent covering as Clint lithely dropped onto the floor in front of you.

 

 _“Where are you going?”_ He asked again.

_“Out.”_ You informed him helpfully.

_“Where?”_ He pressed.

_“Church, can’t you tell from my outfit?”_ You sassed, gesturing at the little black dress.

_“Is that why you’re dressed like a sinner?”_ He said, giving the dress a dirty look.

_“I’m taking that as a compliment.”_ You decided.

_“You shouldn’t. Have you got a date?”_ He demanded. 

_“Ask me again after I get to the bar.”_ You said.

_“Let me guess, you’re going to the bar without your wallet?”_ He guessed.

_“See, I knew all those people who called you stupid were wrong.”_ You told him, smiling sweetly.

_“At least I’m not a slut.”_ He said childishly. 

_“Slut shaming is so last decade.”_ You told him. 

_“Your face is so last decade.”_ He retorted.

_“I’m leaving now, before you embarrass yourself any further.”_ You scoffed.

_” Wait, just let me fix that stray hair.”_ He said and reached out, mussing your hair as much as he could before you rabbit punched him in the ribs and leaned away, spluttering.

 

He cackled loudly and jumped back into the vents before you could stop him.

 

“Jackass.” You muttered under your breath, stomping away and fixing your hair up as much as you could.

 

You were still muttering obscenities when the elevator doors swooshed open and in your eagerness to escape you walked into something _very_ hard.

 

“Oooft.” You gasped, nearly landing on your ass due to the violent rebound.

 

“Shit, doll, are you ok?”

 

You looked up at the very concerned face of Bucky Barnes who had his arms outstretched like he was getting ready to catch you.

 

“Is your entire chest made of metal as well?” You asked him, gesturing at his pecs.

 

“No? Just the arm.” He said, going pink.

 

“Bucky, you’re fucking solid!” You exclaimed.

 

“I’m so sorry.” He said, like it was a problem.

 

“Was not a complaint.” You assured.

 

“What?” He asked and you realized what you’d just said.

 

“What?” You asked in an embarrassed panic.

 

“You just said…” He trailed off, frowning.

 

“I have a concussion or something. Ignore me.” You blurted.

 

“Are you sure you’re ok?” He checked.

 

“Really, I’m fine. I swear.” You said.

 

It was at this point Bucky seemed to notice what you were wearing, his eyes actually moving down your body so slowly that you started to blush.

 

“You look nice.” He said.

 

You were probably reading into things; it was more than likely nothing but… he sounded almost sad about the fact that you didn’t look like a mess.

 

“Uh, thanks. I have stuff, a bar, meeting friends. That kinda thing.” You stammered.

 

“Right. Well, have fun.” He said, stepping away to let you in the elevator.

 

“Yes sir.” You said, immediately wanting to bash yourself on the head for it.

 

You stepped into the elevator and just before the doors closed his hand snaked out to stop them.

 

“Ice? You, well you look really pretty.” He said softly.

 

“Thanks, you too.” You whispered.

 

Would it be possible to bang your head on the elevator wall hard enough to knock yourself out? Nah, he’d probably try and stop you. Mercifully he didn’t point out your awkward faux pas and let the door close on you.

 

When you were gone, he ran his fingers through his hair, sighing heavily. You didn’t have any friends; you were legally dead. And the dress… He knew the vision of you in that dress was going to haunt him for a long time, because he knew what you were wearing it for, he wasn’t stupid. He shouldn’t be jealous, shouldn’t feel so ill at the thought of what you were doing. You weren’t his to covet and he had decided to be your friend. But still, there was the awful voice in his head egging on his forbidden desires. Imagining you wearing something like that for him, him being the one to get you out of the dress.

 

The thrilling mental image had two effects on his body, making him feel nauseous at the idea of sleeping with you because he wanted so much more than just your body but at the same time, the primal urge he had to rip the dress of and bury his cock deep inside you was making him uncomfortably hard.

 

“Friends. Just friends.” He whispered to himself, shaking off the traitorous desire.

 

Or trying to shake it off and failing miserably.

 

 

 

You slipped a twenty from under your dress and paid the cab driver before you got out of the car, looking up at the large building you’d been dropped off at. Throwing your shoulders back and raising your chin, you walked into the lobby with confidence. It was slightly false confidence, but only slight. You weren’t that nervous about why you were here and what you were here for, it was remarkably simple actually. The elevator took you up and as soon as you stepped off, there he was.

 

“I’ve gotta admit, even when you accepted my invitation, I didn’t think you’d actually show.”

 

“You get stood up a lot hot stuff, got a complex about it?” You smirked.

 

“Nobody stands me up, but not every woman is as mysterious and cold hearted as you.”

 

“I’m not that mysterious. If you really want to know, you could ask. I don’t see a lot of talking in our future though.” You said coyly.

 

“After I went to all that effort of ordering Chinese and turns out, you just want me for my body.” He pouted.

 

“If I’ve offended you, maybe I should just leave.” You tutted, turning back towards the elevator.

 

His arm circled your waist, pulling you back.

 

“Not until I’ve gotten what you came for.” He whispered, his lips ghosting across your shoulder.

 

It was obvious really; Johnny Storm was a notorious playboy and you were emotionally unavailable.  That didn’t mean that you were a nun, you still had physical needs, and who could satisfy them better than the man of fire? You spun around in his hold and he didn’t hesitate to capture you in a scorching kiss. It was everything you had hoped for, hot and passionate and completely unemotional.

 

You pushed your body into his, gasping in surprise when an image of beautiful grey blue eyes flitted through your mind.

 

Your fingers grazed the back of his neck, brushing his hair and you frowned when your fingers itched to tug at longer, brunette locks.

 

His hands ran across your body and you shivered, wondering what it would feel like to have metal caress you with skin.

 

“Godfuckingdamnit.” You swore.

 

You hadn’t had to work this hard to get a man out of your mind since… since Daniel.

 

“Everything ok?” Johnny frowned.

 

“No. I can’t do this.” You sighed, butting your head against his shoulder.

 

“Whoever he is, he’s an idiot.” Johnny scoffed.

 

“Pardon?”

 

“Whoever you’re thinking about? You’re here with me, thinking about him instead of being with him. So, he’s an idiot for not grabbing hold of this opportunity.” He explained.

 

“He’s not the idiot. He’s, well he’s not what I want. My brain just hasn’t got the memo.” You sighed.

 

“Look, you’re clearly dealing with some issues. I don’t mind you working them out on me.” He said, raising his eyebrow to make it clear exactly what he meant.

 

You were not going to sit around and pine for somebody. Anybody.

 

“Good.” You said, pushing him backwards and sending him sprawling onto a chair.   

 

He smirked as you hiked your dress over your thighs so you could straddle his waist and pulled him into another scorching kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I painsatkingly recreated all the notes I lost when my laptop broek so I could restart this baby... So Ice is back!
> 
> I'm undecided as to whether I will actually write the Johnny Storm smut, I guess it's up to you. Other than that, what did you think of this chaper?

**Author's Note:**

> So this is going to be my next fic series after Name Calling IF you guys like it. If not, I can scrap it and work on something else. It’s kinda up to you lovely people, and I won’t be offended if this isn’t a hit.


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